Transmigration
by Thabane Tha Creator
Summary: Ootsutsuki Ashura was supposed to stay dead, with only his chakra lingering on through time. Fate, unfortunately, causes him to awaken in the latest body to house his chakra. What does this unification, of two people from different times, mean for the word? Only time will tell.
1. Chapter 1

**What's up people? How ya'll doin'? I'm proud to bring you guys my second fanfic, and it is titled Transmigration.**

Summary: _Ōtsutsuki Asura was supposed to stay dead, with only his chakra lingering on throughout the tethers of time. Fate unfortunately causes him to awaken in the latest body to house his powerful chakra. What does this unification of two people from different times mean for the world? Only time will tell._

xxXXxx

Chapter One: Transmigrating

Ōtsutsuki Asura was many things throughout his life time. He was a troublesome child, he had been called talentless by many people, especially when compared to his older brother; and most of all he had been called a god. That's right, a god. Despite all of the criticisms he endured as a child, he grew up to be a being that was so strong that he was said to have reached godly hood. He had such an enormous presence on the battlefield that those that opposed him would bow to him in mere seconds of encountering him. He was so strong in fact; that he had even discovered the secrets of using Yin and Yang at the same time, something that not even his prodigious brother had been able to.

Asura knew that he was destined to revolutionise the world, any child born with Ōtsutsuki DNA in them was destined to do so. It all just boiled down to whether or not that person had the courage, strength and determination to do so. Being the son of the Rikudō Sennin brought many pressures with it, one of which was to succeed his father as the heir to his _great_ legacy. Any normal person would have caved in from all of that pressure, but Asura was anything but normal, and as such he did not cave in to all of the pressure. He took his role as successor to Ninshū very seriously, going as far as to travel the four corners of the world in hopes of teaching people about this special property that allowed one to control nature and be one with it…not just nature, but be one with everyone as well.

Unfortunately for him though his progressed was stopped when his brother, in a fit of rage that Asura did not know where it came from, challenged him to a fight to the death, where the winner would be the rightful heir to Ninshū. While Asura did not want to fight his brother in the beginning, one thing led to another before Asura finally fought his brother with all of his might, might which resulted in the younger of the brothers winning over the older brother. Asura had gained prowess comparable to a god, but not on the same level as his father, but he was close enough. His father was many things that were godly, but the one thing he was not was immortal. For all the strength that the legendary man had, he could not find, nor did he even bother to try to find, immortality.

Time caught up to him, just as it did for every living being, and it took his life away. Indra, who was a genius, also had a similar fate. Despite all of his natural genius, he was also someone that time removed from the plain of existence. He didn't know much about his uncle, Hamura, but he did know that even he had to have left the world. No one was exempt from this one true rule of life.

Everyone had to die at some stage.

So why was it that he, of all people, suddenly found himself staring up at the cloudless canopy that was known as the sky, feeling exhaustion surge through his body? He knew from the moment he opened his eyes that he was alive. Exactly how this phenomenon occurred was beyond him, but one thing he could tell right now was that he was alive and kicking. Okay, maybe not exactly kicking but alive nonetheless. In fact, the kicking part of his statement seemed to apply to the shadow that hovered over him, because the owner of said shadow was lightly tapping him with his foot on his ribcage.

"Hey kid…you okay?" he heard a mature voice ask out in concern.

'Wait kid?' now that didn't sound right, he was anything but a kid. Asura sat up on his laurels so that he could get a better look at the figure that had taken to kicking his ribs as if it were a sport of some sort. Looking at the figure that towered over his downed form, Asura was able to see that this person had features that were quite unique. He had a height greater than most men Asura had come across, waist-length, spiky white hair which was tied into a ponytail, and he had two shoulder length bangs framing his face. He had two very unique facial markings that ran down his cheeks, and his forehead was adorned in a headband that had four small horns, two on both ends, and the headband had the kanji for oil on it. He also had a noticeable wart on his nose, something that a surprised Asura thought chased the ladies away. He wore an outfit that consisted of a short green coloured kimono top, matching pants and red haori over the green kimono top. He also wore a pair of wooden sandals and he had a giant scroll on his back.

"Ero-sennin?" Asura said in a voice he immediately recognised as not of his own. His voice was stern, mature and very powerful. It didn't squeak like that of an annoying child. Wait…Ero-sennin?

He looked at the man once more, a bit more properly this time, and he found the man staring at him with a look that spoke of complete annoyance, and he vocalised this annoyance by yelling at him to stop calling him by that name. While this man that was in front of him yelled, Asura questioned exactly how he knew of this man's apparent nick name. No parent would name their child Perverted Hermit in their right state of mind. He ought to know since he was a parent himself. So there was no was this guy's name was Perverted Hermit. Back to the matter at hand though, his mind felt like it was being supercharged. His thoughts raced at a million miles a minute as he took in this Ero-sennin's appearance while also trying to decipher how he knew the man's name.

The more he thought about it, the less sense it made to him, going as far as to make him hold his head in frustration. The man he had called Ero-sennin seemed to notice this as well, because he stopped his ranting and looked at Asura with a look that spoke of both concern and of confusion. Seeing this man look at him in such a manner reminded Asura of how his father would look at him when he was concerned about his wellbeing. Despite being an adult that had fought many battles throughout his life, he still missed his father, and when Asura looked at this man and saw the look of concern he had on his face, he could not help the small smile that graced his features.

He was deeply touched by the fact that someone still looked at him in such a manner. The smile vanished a second later when the man's next words were finally registered by Asura's mind.

"Hey Naruto, you okay kid?" the man said.

Wait…that was not right. He was Ōtsutsuki Asura, not this Naruto person that he was being labelled as. The more he thought about this name, the more he realised something. He was supposed to be dead. He remembered how he died, it wasn't the best way possible for one to die, but it was not the worst possible death either. So why the heck was he in the world of the living? He could tell that he was alive due to the fact that he could feel the blood coursing through his veins and he could also feel the chakra that was surrounding him. All of that bountiful natural energy that was just waiting to be synchronised with him…then he felt it.

It started out small at first, but it rapidly grew in strength. Images flashed through his head, images that he was able to immediately pick up on as memories. The funny thing about these memories was that none of them involved him. They instead involved a boy that had bright blonde hair, deep blue eyes and whisker-like markings on his cheeks. The more these images played through his head, the more pain he started experiencing. It grew to the point where he could no longer keep quiet about it and he vocalised his anguish with a cry of intolerable suffering.

"Argh!" again, Asura's voice sounded different from his own. It sounded like that of a child, more specifically the blonde child that was currently running through his thoughts. All of this child's dreams, aspirations, hopes, fears, and feelings of any kind flowed through Asura's mind. All of this information would have killed a lesser being, but he was anything but that.

He continued to cry out in anguish, writhing on the ground, clutching his head as pain coursed through every nerve in his body. By all accounts this pain should have killed him, but it didn't. The more he felt it, the more he sort of grew accustomed to it. Wait, that was not right, he was not growing accustomed to the pain, but rather he was growing accustomed to the images flowing through his brain. After around a minute or so of this, Asura was able to make one conclusive finding. These were not just random memories that were forced onto his brain, but rather they were his memories.

He was Uzumaki Naruto.

xxXXxx

When Asura's eyes fluttered open he was once again greeted by the sight of Ero-sennin, but this time the man did not have the carefree demeanour he had before. This time he had an aura of seriousness that might have frightened Asura if he was a twelve year old child. Wait, he was a twelve year old child. He was Uzumaki Naruto, a twelve year old child from a time much more different than his own. Still though, that did not mean that this man's gaze scared him.

"What is it, Ero-sennin?" that did not feel right to Asura. Calling someone a pervert as if it were their name was not in him; but just as soon as he thought that Uzumaki Naruto's memories flashed through his mind once again. It was not all of the boy's memories, just memories involving him and the man before him. Suffice to say that by the time they stopped flashing through his mind, Asura understood perfectly why Uzumaki Naruto called this man Ero-sennin.

"What is it? What is it?" the man repeated that sentence as if he were annoyed, "You just got knocked out cold for twenty minutes after you had spent an entire minute kicking and screaming, clutching your head like you had a Yamanaka use the Shinranshin no Jutsu on you, and you wake up and ask me 'what is it'? What the hell is wrong with you?!"

Okay, this guy was definitely mad, but he couldn't understand why he was like this. Asura would have understood if he was Naruto's father, but he was just some sleazy man he just met. He had no right to talk to him in that manner. He was not his father; in fact he had no father! Just as Asura was about to let this man have a piece of his mind, he realised the thought he just had…he had no father? That didn't sound right. His father was the Legendary Rikudō Sennin, a man hailed as a god among mortals and the first person to be born with chakra.

That was when he realised something else. He knew of his father, yet he stated that he did not have one. He delved into the memories that were of Uzumaki Naruto and he discovered that it was the boy's mind that had seeped into his own. The boy was the one without a father. He had no mother either. No living relatives that one could speak about, so it was just him and no one else.

"Naruto!"

Asura's attention was brought to back onto the man that stood before him. He had a stern look on his face as he stared him down, as if he could size up what was going on. Being looked upon in this manner made Asura feel greatly annoyed. It reminded him of his brother; back when they were younger when he would look at him as if he were some sort of plague.

"What is it you buffoon, can you not see that I am trying to contemplate here?" ah, now that sounded like how he used to speak before. He could feel some of the power returning to his voice, although the childish squeakiness held on as well. But the vernacular seemed a bit off. It almost seemed as if he was talking using some sort of slang that Uzumaki Naruto had incorporated onto him.

Now Jiraiya was many things. He was a pervert- no, scratch that- he was a super pervert. He lied a lot, he engaged in the three shinobi vices as if it were a past time and most prominent of all, he was a powerful shinobi. But never _ever_ had someone outside of his own team dared call him a buffoon, especially someone as young as Naruto.

"Who the hell do you think you're calling a buffoon?" Jiraiya shouted at the blonde.

"I am calling you a buffoon, buffoon!" Asura retorted with his own high pitched scream, "Can you not see that I am contemplating my current predicament?"

"What predicament?" Jiraiya shouted, he was about to go on when he was beat to the punch by Asura shouting out, "How did I end up in a twelve year old's body?"

"…"

"…"

There was silence between the two men, both trying to contemplate their recent actions, before the silence was broken by Jiraiya when he said the most intellectual thing that occurred in his mind, "Huh?"

Asura looked at the man and said, "Do you have some form of a hearing deficiency?"

Again, there was silence between the two males. Jiraiya could not understand a single thing that came out of Naruto's mouth. He knew the meaning of each word that he uttered, but the context in which they were being used baffled the Toad Sage greatly. Another thing that had him baffled was Naruto's sudden difference in speech. He went from speaking like a mentally ill twelve year old to speaking like a noble of the highest order. He wanted answers, and he was going to get them _now_.

"What do you mean by you being stuck in a twelve year old's body?" Jiraiya began, "You're twelve, are you not?"

Instead of getting a reply from Naruto, he was instead given the silent treatment. This made a tic mark appear on Jiraiya's forehead and a look of annoyance graced his features. He was about to hit the kid again when he suddenly saw his eyes roll into the back of his head and he lost consciousness and his body slammed onto the ground.

xxXXxx

Once again Asura found himself waking up from unconsciousness, but this time it was not in the presence of Jiraiya, but rather in a dark place that had metal pipes that leaked at a slow rate. He slowly rose from the floor he was on back-first; doing so made him realise that whatever place he was in had shallow water as far as the eye could see, which unfortunately in such a dark place was not very far. He also noticed that while he had been lying in water, he was completely dry when he stood up.

Asura stretched himself a bit, before he looked down into the shallow water once again, this time focusing on his reflection, and he was surprised to see that instead of the face of Uzumaki Naruto staring back at him, he found that it was his true form that stared back. His black hair that had bandages wrapped around it to form bangs, along with a headband on his forehead, brown eyes and bright smile stared back at him. He never felt more jubilation than he did right now. He had his old form back. The whole debacle with him being in a twelve year old's body must have been a nightmare. A vivid nightmare, yes, but a nightmare nonetheless.

Asura slowly walked through the dark chambers that he was in, slowly moving forward in search of a way out. He moulded some chakra so that he could sense exactly where the nearest exit was, but he instead sensed a large…very large chakra presence nearby. This prompted Asura to quicken his pace until he was in front of what looked like a jail cell meant to house something massive. He did not even need to see the paper that had the kanji for _seal _on it to realise that he was looking at a piece of what his father had coined "Fūinjutsu".

He could feel a deep, dark chakra that was present behind the seal. He knew that it was powerful enough to give even someone such as him, a person touted with near godly hood, a problem. Whatever was behind the seal was too dangerous to just release, Asura had to be on guard right now.

Then, as if sensing that he was there, something moved within the darkness. First a red, black slit eye made itself known. The eye seemed to be hovering in the air, gazing fiercely at Asura. Its size was greater than even his. Next to follow was a movement that signified a shift within the jail cell. Water rippled at Asura's feet as whatever manifestation that was there simply moved. When Asura looked at the creature once again, he was greeted by two eyes this time instead of one. Asura saw the eyes stare at him as if they were gauging for something inside of him, as if they knew him.

Then the eyes were joined by a pair of razor sharp teeth that were shaped in the form of a sinister smirk. This confused Asura a bit because it seemed that whatever was in there seemed kind of glad to see him; but just as he thought this creature, whatever it was, could not surprise him anymore, it shocked him greatly when it spoke in a very baritone voice and said, "**Hello Asura, long time no see**."

Asura showed no outward reaction to the creature seemingly knowing him, but internally he was shocked. How could this creature know of him? What the heck was this creature?

"Who are you?" Asura asked, "How do you know of me?"

The creature's sinister smirk faltered slightly, looking at Asura with eyes that flashed with pain for a second, before the creature quickly masked it all up in what was clear pretence. When it spoke to him again it said, "**Well, well, well, it seems as though the son of the great Rikudō Sennin seems to have forgotten about me after one thousand years**."

Asura was in no mood for whatever mind games this creature wanted to play. He just wanted to get out so he could go to wherever the dead go. Just as he was about to voice his thoughts, something that the creature said caught his attention.

"After one thousand years?" that's impossible, no one could live that long.

The creature was quiet for a few seconds, its grin still floating in the dark air, before it widened even further when it said, "**Ah, so you have no recollection of the past one thousand years?**"

Asura was greatly agitated right now, and he let it show on his face when he spoke, "Would you stop with all of this rambling and just get to the point, beast!"

The creature seemed to take offence to that because it let out a deep growl that reverberated throughout the darkness. The creature's momentary lapse into rage was soon gone as it let the smirk it was donning before return to its face. Asura did not like that smirk. It made him want to open this seal and obliterate whatever was behind the seal. It represented a secret to understanding exactly what was going on right now. The creature clearly knew him, but it was grating his nerves. It seemed like it was playing with him, which it clearly was. It knew something that was of vital importance to him, and yet it just dance around the issue like it was nothing. Asura wanted to destroy this creature.

"**You would call your own **_**brother**_** such a thing?**" the creature asked.

Asura was about to retort at the creature about having no brother that was evil before two things happened. The first was that an image of Indra flashed across his mind, and that quickly squashed that argument, and the second was the recognition of something about the creature. Its eyes, Asura looked at its eyes more carefully and realised exactly what, or rather, who this creature was.

"Kurama?" Asura said in shock.

Just as he said so, a creature that had the appearance of a fox, with bunny shaped ears, along with nine swishing tails in the back and a humanoid figure that stood hundreds of metres tall made itself known to Asura. He looked at the creature-no, his brother with a look of awe in his eyes. The last time he had seen the fox was when he was but the size of a Baku. Looking at Kurama now made Asura stare in shock. He was as tall as a mountain, and he was very powerful too, if the chakra he sensed Kurama emanating was anything to go by.

"**Hello Asura…nice to see you after such a long time**." Kurama said in return.

"How long?' Asura asked, before he quickly added, "A thousand years?"

Kurama just nodded his head, seeing Asura take a step back. He did not back track out of fear, rather he backtracked out of shock. Kurama knew that Asura was shocked by the news that it had been a thousand years since he died.

"How am I still alive then, if it really has been a thousand years?" Asura asked.

"**You are not.**" Kurama stated evenly.

Now Asura was even more confused. He understood that a thousand years had passed since his time, but the part that got him thinking was what Kurama said about him not being alive.

As if sensing his thoughts, Kurama replied by stating, "**Your body is dead. What you are right now is just a chakra imprint that has clung onto the body of a twelve year old boy. The reason why you are yourself right now is because we are in said boy's mind realm. In here you are you, it seems.**"

Normally Kurama would not have spoken so much to any person, but Asura was special. He was one of the few creatures, human and nonhuman, he could actually say he liked. Asura was not an asshole towards him like his punk brother Indra had been. And the reason as to why he knew so much about Asura's current predicament was because he was chakra personified. He knew all there was to know about chakra since he was a living embodiment of it. He could sense that the Asura before him was just pure chakra, and that he was still stuck in a twelve year old boy's gut.

While Kurama thought of this and more, Asura also seemed to be thinking quite heavily as well. If he was just a chakra imprint, then that meant that he had done the thing that he remembered his father teaching him and Indra about. He had transmigrated. But why? The only time someone's chakra transmigrates is if he or she, depending on how powerful they were, had unfinished business with the world when they die. They would let their chakra configure itself into someone else, and then, as if the chakra had that person's properties, it would slowly seep that person's will into the new candidate. Until the deed is done then the chakra will continue in this cycle forever.

If this was true, then he only had one question that he needed to ask, a question he was sure that not even Kurama would know the answer to.

_Why_?

Why had he transmigrated? He had done everything that he set out to do in his lifetime. He lived a happy and fulfilling life, but his chakra still transmigrated. Why?

"Asura." He felt Kurama's deep voice call to him. He raised his head and gazed at the fox. He saw Kurama pick up his front right paw and point it at him. Asura looked down at his chest and saw nothing wrong with himself, so he looked at Kurama again, only to realise he was not point at him per se, just in his general direction. Kurama was pointing behind him, and as soon as he realised this, Asura turned around and found the person his chakra had chosen to transmigrate into.

Uzumaki Naruto.

The orange jumpsuit wearing boy stared at Asura with a look of confusion on his face as he said, "Who are you?"

"I am Asura…Ōtsutsuki Asura." He said.

Naruto scratched his head slightly and said, "I don't know you…wait, are you my tou-san?!"

Okay, that was not the type of reaction Asura expected out of the boy. He expected him to freak out, not excitedly ask him if he was his father. Asura knew that even he was dense while growing up, but he was never_ this_ dense.

"Hey tou-san, tou-san. Can you teach me a cool jutsu for the chunin exam finals?"

Okay, it was official; this child was the dumbest child he had ever come across. Asking techniques for a final? What final was this boy talking about? He heard the boy speak frequently about many things, but he could not program them into his mid due to a simple fact. This boy spoke gibberish…well it was not really gibberish, but it was something un-understandable.

Looking the boy over Asura finally understood what this trip into the boy's mind realm signified. Transmigration is just supposed to be a transfer of chakra through the passage of time, but this time around Asura's chakra was awoken by something. This was something that was not supposed to occur. His chakra should not have a mind of its own and as such it was pulled into the boy's mental realm.

This was a meeting of the minds, if you will. It was a meeting that would decide exactly whose mind would take over the body of Uzumaki Naruto.

Asura was many things in his life, but he was not a body snatcher, and as such he already knew the answer to his unasked question of whether or not he ought to leave things as they are, or change things. Having gained access to all of Uzumaki Naruto's knowledge, which there was very little of; Asura was able to determine the right course of action for this moment.

The boy had a heart of gold, even though he had a bit of a dark side in him, not including Kurama. He had the potential to do great things and be a great man. Asura's time had long since passed. It was now Uzumaki Naruto's time, and as such he had to leave. It was not his time anymore. It was long gone.

Without a second's hesitation as to what had to occur, Asura moved quicker than Naruto could anticipate. He grabbed his head and slowly allowed it all to seep in. He allowed all of his thoughts, speech patterns, memories, and most importantly his chakra, to seep into the mind of his young descendent. This process lasted for about a minute, but by the time Asura was done doing what he needed to do, Uzumaki Naruto was unconscious and he (Asura) was but a fading ember.

"**What did you just do to the boy?**" he heard Kurama ask.

Asura allowed a small smile to grace his features as he said, "Nothing." He then started dissipating like dust particles being blown in the wind, "We simply merged into one being."

With that Asura was gone from the mindscape, and from the world.

xxXXxx

Naruto's eyes fluttered open to the sight of Jiraiya peering down at him anxiously, looking to see if he was alright. Upon Jiraiya noticing Naruto's eyes opening, he let out a sigh of relief and stuck his hand out for the blonde to accept. Naruto took the hand and used it to propel himself onto his feet. He then proceeded to dust himself off, before he stretched his limbs.

"You okay there kid?" Jiraiya asked after a moment of uncomfortable silence.

"That's the third time you've asked me that already." Naruto said in a calm manner. His clam tone surprised Jiraiya greatly, but he decided not to dwell on it just yet, because he had to find out exactly what had caused Naruto's bouts of unconsciousness.

"Hey kid, exactly what was going on with you?" Jiraiya asked in a serious tone. This tone surprised Naruto because he had never seen this side of Jiraiya before.

"What do you mean exactly?" Naruto asked.

"You know what I mean." Jiraiya said in an irritated manner, only to realise after a few seconds that the blonde did not know what he meant. Jiraiya let out a soft sigh before he said, "What caused you all of that pain that ended up knocking you out cold?"

Some light finally entered Naruto's eyes before his face took a grim turn a second later. He knew what Jiraiya wanted to know, but he was not sure if telling the man would be very helpful to him or not. Thinking about what had caused him all of his pain made him remember his past life. He remembered his past life as Ōtsutsuki Asura, youngest son of the Rikudō Sennin. He remembered all that he could from that life. All of his goals, achievements, defeats, struggles, rewards, friends, loved ones and even his enemies. He remembered all of these things and more from his past life as Asura, but now it was all coupled into the mind of Uzumaki Naruto.

No, it was not just coupled into the mind of Uzumaki Naruto, but rather he was both Ōtsutsuki Asura and Uzumaki Naruto. Thinking about all of this made him inwardly sigh, because he knew from experience, from both of his lives that this would be something that would be very hard for a lot of people to believe.

"Well…" he heard Jiraiya demand. This made him sigh again, this time it was audible on the outside, before he began what he knew would be a bullshit tale to Jiraiya.

"What I am about to iterate to you is the truth." Naruto began.

"Iterate? Since when do you use such a word?" Jiraiya asked, since he had never heard Naruto speak in such a fluent manner. He half expected him to say dattebayo.

"Listen to what I am about to tell you, then you will understand what happened to me." Naruto said, before he quickly added, "No interruptions."

"Not even to ask-"

"I said no interruptions!" Naruto shouted as he let his temper get the best of him, slightly. This made him internally frown. In his past life he would have never been so easily overpowered by his emotions. Sure he did not have control of them quite like his brother and father had, but he was certainly better than this.

He saw Jiraiya nod his head at what he said, indicating that he got the message loud and clear.

Now Jiraiya would not normally allow someone to talk to him in such a manner, but he had to make an exception here due to the fact that he wanted to know exactly what was going on with Naruto. Pointlessly arguing about respect when there was something more pressing at hand was idiotic, even by his standards.

"Okay…where do I begin…I got it…once upon a time…" Naruto said

xxXXxx

It took Naruto a total of nearly two hours to explain exactly who he was to Jiraiya. He explained to him the whole truth, about his past life living as Asura, and how his chakra transmigrated through the centuries up until he ended up here inside Uzumaki Naruto. During the explanation, Naruto theorised that Orochimaru's and Jiraiya's use of the Gogyō Fūin (Five Elements Seal) and Gogyō Kaiin (Five Elements Unseal) caused his dormant past persona to awaken. He had no memory of his other lives, just his life as Ōtsutsuki Asura and Uzumaki Naruto. He tried to be as descriptive as possible about what exactly happened to him, or more specifically what happened to his past chakra that caused it to end up in Naruto.

When Naruto finished explaining his story to Jiraiya, the man could only look at him with an emotionless expression on his face, before he suddenly burst out laughing, a clear sign that he did not believe the blonde's tale.

"Hahaha…let- hahaha- let me get this- hahahahahaha- straight." Jiraiya began, before he continued to laugh his ass off for another minute, before he calmed down enough so that he could speak coherent sentences, "Let me get this straight…heh, you're the son of the Rikudō Sennin?"

"In the flesh…sort of." Naruto replied.

"And you are currently in the form of someone you reincarnated into?" Jiraiya asked, feeling his laughter return slightly.

"Not in those exact words…but yes." Naruto replied calmly.

"And you don't know why this occurred?" Jiraiya asked, his voice now dripping with mirth.

"I'd appreciate it if you asked your questions in a less condescending manner." Naruto chose to say that instead of replying to Jiraiya's questions. He was getting annoyed by this man's attitude.

Jiraiya could not take it anymore, and he simply burst into an incredible fit of laughter. This story to him was just too funny. There was no way that it could have been real, right?

Jiraiya's laughter hitched in his throat as he was suddenly bombarded by chakra that was so powerful, so fierce, and so monstrous that he thought that he might actually break a sweat. Imagine that, him, a Sannin, break a sweat over the power of someone's chakra. That was absurd, right?

Looking towards the source of said chakra, he found one very annoyed Uzumaki Naruto staring at him with a look that would have frightened lesser men. Naruto was the source of this powerful chakra? Impossible! The kid may have been a Jinchuriki, but even then there was no way he could churn out chakra that was beyond even that of a Sannin.

"I told you not to be haughty with me, Jiraiya, and now you shall pay the price." Naruto spoke in a very frightening tone as he took a single step forward. The very earth caved in from the power that Naruto emanated as he made his was over to the Sannin.

Most men would have backed down from this frightening sight, out of fear, but Jiraiya was a Sannin for a reason, and there was no way in hell he was backing out of a fight against anyone.

"Tough talk, _son of the Rikudō Sennin_." Jiraiya taunted, also releasing massive amounts of chakra, but not on the same level as Naruto.

Naruto frowned at that, he expected more from the man. Maybe he was holding back, maybe he was not. Either way, Jiraiya deserved an ass kicking for looking down on him. People had looked down on him in his previous life, before he gained prowess that was greater than even his brother's. Now in this life he had to experience it again. No thanks!

Naruto burst from the spot he was on with such speed that he nearly caught Jiraiya by surprise. Naruto swung his right fist at the man, but he was able to quickly dodge it as if he had not even been there. Naruto promptly ducked a kick that came from the side, courtesy of Jiraiya. The man continued his assault by throwing punches and kicks that the blonde was forced to block. Unfortunately for him this seemed to be exactly what Jiraiya wanted, for not five seconds later, Naruto's arms were covered in golden symbols that represented Jiraiya's seals that made his movements sluggish, before he was kicked in the face, sending him sprawling onto the ground.

"Is that all you got, _Ōtsutsuki Asura_?" Jiraiya taunted some more. In truth Jiraiya actually believed what Naruto said. His impressive power levels, along with the fact that he was able to block a couple of Jiraiya's punches with minimal effect while he was going at roughly 75% made a believer out of Jiraiya. The reason why he kept on taunting was because he wanted to see where this would all end. He wanted to see Naruto's- Asura's- whatever he was' ultimate power levels.

Unfortunately for Jiraiya, he may have bitten off more than he could chew. Naruto slowly rose to his feet and channelled such a great amount of chakra that the ground around him caved in. His chakra was visible to the naked eye now, something that not a lot of people could do. His eyes seemingly glowed brightly for about a second before he shifted into a battle stance. His right leg was place in front of his left leg, with his hands drawn back into his body. He stayed this way for a few seconds, watching as Jiraiya shifted slightly under the weight of the chakra that he was emitting. Right now he was emitting so much chakra that his mind was able to compare it to be at least ten times larger than the chakra Kakashi-sensei used in his fight with Zabuza.

He watched as Jiraiya stared at him with sweat rolling off his brow. Naruto was sure that the chakra he was emitting was high enough to alert sensor type shinobi that were all over Konoha. They and whoever else was skilled enough to pick up chakra from a mile away, metaphorically speaking.

Naruto grew tired of looking at Jiraiya and decided that the man's punishment for looking down on him was at hand. Naruto shifted his right foot slightly…this little action had the consequence of causing the ground to rumble, before it turned to mud that quickly rose into the air and went after Jiraiya. Naruto also drew in a large amount of air, before he breathed it out in the form of a gigantic inferno that quickly caught up to the mud tsunami and combined with it in order to create an even more powerful attack. The attack was on Jiraiya's vicinity within two seconds, burning everything that was in its path as it scorched the earth, before it cascaded down on its target.

There was an explosion of flames that ensued when the flaming mud tsunami reached its destination; flames so powerful that even Naruto had to jump back to avoid them completely.

'It looks like my new form has some issues with controlling chakra.' Naruto thought internally.

Naruto looked around the clearing, hoping to spot the legendary figure of Jiraiya, but after a few seconds of not seeing the man, he started getting thoughts about him killing the man.

'Oh no, don't tell me that I just killed one of the Sannin? The wrong one at that!' Naruto mentally panicked, but before his state of panic could escalate any further, he suddenly felt the earth below him shift quicker than his senses could allow him to escape. A second later and he found himself trapped in a large pool of muck that was slowly dragging him to the bottom. He was only in it ankle deep before he felt the technique stop sucking him in.

Naruto looked to the right side of the battlefield and saw Jiraiya kneeling there, with his hands on the ground, panting slightly, and covered in some soot. Naruto was able to piece together that this technique was Jiraiya's doing, and that he wanted to subdue him with it, not kill him.

"Thanks for trying to kill me, you stupid brat!" Jiraiya shouted at the top of his lungs.

"That is what you get for patronising me." Naruto replied, before he looked at the muck he was still stuck in and said, "Do you mind releasing me from this?"

Jiraiya said nothing, but the slow rising of his form from the depths of the muck told Naruto that Jiraiya had just reversed the technique. As soon as he was out of the muck, Naruto jumped towards Jiraiya and landed next to the man. Jiraiya stopped sending chakra into his technique, letting it harden before he stood up.

There was an awkward silence between both men as neither was sure about what to say to the other, before Naruto grew tired of this and simply said, "Do you believe me now?"

"Yes." Jiraiya said.

"What made you believe my story?" Naruto asked, genuinely curious as to what could have caused Jiraiya to believe him.

"You used skills that not even some Jonin can use." Jiraiya replied.

"Huh?" Naruto let his head hang lopsidedly, not sure about what the man was saying.

"What I mean is that you were able to keep up with me in a pure taijutsu fight. Granted I was not going all out, but still, being able to go toe to toe with a Sannin in taijutsu is something." Jiraiya proclaimed proudly.

Naruto shook his head and said, "I should have mopped the floor with you."

It was not arrogance, just the simple truth. Naruto knew of only a handful of people that were stronger than him, and those were his uncle, Hamura, his father, Hagoromo and grandmother, Kaguya. No one besides them could defeat him, not even his prodigious brother, Indra. His memories of his encounter with Orochimaru in the forest of death and his recent fight with Jiraiya told him all he needed to know about a Sannin's strength. They just were not on that level.

"What did you say?" Jiraiya asked as if he were feeling peeved.

"You heard me…I should have defeated you easily. It seems as though I need to train in order to regain my former strength." Naruto said, raising his fist up to his face, before he clenched and unclenched it repeatedly.

Jiraiya looked at the blonde boy before him with a calculative gaze. Sure he trusted the kid when he said that he was this Asura guy, and that he (Jiraiya) and Orochimaru were responsible for awakening him, but that did not mean that he was just going to sit by idly and not investigate this further. He also needed to inform Sarutobi-sensei about what had transpired. He thought about letting a Yamanaka look into the boy's mind; see if everything was okay, that would surely help with understanding the situation better.

"Tell me something kid," Jiraiya began, pausing only to make sure that he had Naruto's undivided attention and then he continued with his query, "If you are both Naruto and this Asura guy…what would you prefer to be called?"

Naruto was silent for a second before he replied, "Naruto. Ōtsutsuki Asura's time came and went a long time ago. Now is the time of Uzumaki Naruto."

Jiraiya nodded his head at that, clearly feeling relieved that Naruto remained intact. Another question popped into Jiraiya's head and he quickly asked it, "In all of your infinite wisdom," that felt cheesy, even for Jiraiya, "What is it that you believe you transmigrated for? What is the purpose for all of your reincarnating?"

In other words, _what the fuck do you want? _

Naruto was silent at that as he contemplated exactly what Jiraiya was saying. What was he here for? What was so different with this world that he had to be woken up from his eternal slumber? It was when that question popped into his mind that he had flashes rush through his head, flashes of the world through the eyes of Uzumaki Naruto. He could see how the world reacted to him, as a…Jinchuriki. That's right, his new form was the host to one of his brothers…he could not believe that he only noticed now how things were. Uzumaki Naruto was a Jinchuriki just like Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo, his father…but unlike his father, who held the great monstrosity that was the Jūbi, Naruto only held Kurama. From the memories of his new form he was able to ascertain that the current world did not know about the Jūbi, they just knew of his nine siblings.

These people had to count themselves lucky. His old man was seen as a god after he had mastered the power that the Jūbi possessed. To them, the Kyūbi, Kurama, was the strongest. The concept of calling his brothers and sisters names based off their tail count seemed foreign to him. It just felt wrong.

Another thing that he found to be wrong, with regards to his siblings, or in the case of Kurama, was how he was right now. His chakra felt evil, like he was some sort of demonic entity that thrived off hate, misery and despair. Just thinking about the foul presence his brother's, once warm, chakra emitted made his skin crawl…exactly what had happened to him during the last one thousand years?

After surfing through these memories and many more, he found another piece of memory that felt wrong to him. The way Naruto grew up, being ill-treated, and looked upon in disdain as if he were a freak show of some sort. This was not how a child should have grown up. Have human beings become so corrupted that they look down on a mere child with such malcontent? Was the world he and his father tried to build truly gone? Whatever happened to the teachings of Ninshū? Whatever happened to love, peace, understanding each other? Why was the world so bad?

All these questions and more plagued his mind. After a minute of silent contemplation, Naruto finally had his answer to Jiraiya's question.

"I do not know much about this world…but I do know that I need to change it. Just from looking at it through the eyes of Uzumaki Naruto, I can tell that there is much that has to be done in order to correct it from its current course. It is headed towards destruction."

"So what," Jiraiya began, "you aiming for world peace?"

The way the question was asked made Naruto feel like the man was condescending him again. He could try and strike him once more, but he knew that despite having larger chakra reserves than Jiraiya, many of the things he knew were suited for an adult body and that would mean that he was going to lose again, should they fight. He chose to ignore the obvious scepticism the man had and chose to reply to his question.

"Yes."

Silence reigned between the two males, as they both thought about what they wanted to do next. Jiraiya wanted to believe that the kid could do it, achieve peace. But it was easier said than done. He ought to know since he had pursued this for many, many years, and he was pretty sure that he would die before he even got the chance to fulfil his dream. He just hoped that he had someone to pass his will onto, and looking at Naruto made him realise that he might have found the right person. If he had attained it before, then that meant that he could do it once again.

"How are you going to go about doing this?" Jiraiya asked.

"I do not know…as I said before I do not know the ways of this world that much. I only know what I have experienced as Uzumaki Naruto, and even then it was pretty horrendous. This world is sicker than the world I grew up in. The methods I used before are not going to work now, that I am sure of." Naruto said confidently, before he added, "But that does not mean I will not try."

Jiraiya nodded his head at that, satisfied with the boy's reply. The one thing he was trying to wrap his head around was how the boy spoke. Gone were the spontaneous bursts of gibberish, and in came sentences with less conjunctions and more wisdom. Naruto's confidence in himself allowed Jiraiya to smile. Perhaps he was looking at the person that the Great Toad Sage spoke of.

"Well, if you want to save the world, then you'll have to get beefed up first!" Jiraiya proclaimed loudly. And by that he meant training.

"How?" Naruto asked.

"By studying under me of course!" Jiraiya said, striking a pose that spoke of his showboating ways.

"Really now? What could I possibly learn from a pervert like you?" Naruto asked smugly.

"Water walking for one!" Jiraiya answered with his own smug look, "You don't know how to do it."

Naruto looked at the man with a small smile, before he bent his knees slightly, pumped his legs with chakra, and shot off like a bullet fired into the air. He landed on the nearest source of water, which was a small stream he had tried to walk on previously, but failed horrendously while his chakra was still locked away. What occurred next caught Jiraiya, who was watching the blonde's every move, off-guard. Naruto landed on the stream with such grace that there was only a small amount of ripples caused by his soft landing. He looked down at his feet and frowned.

"I should not have disturbed the flow of this water." Naruto said, once again chalking it up to his new form. While to many, Jiraiya included, what he did was beyond graceful, to him it seemed wrong. He had been trained by his father to walk on water with such grace that he would not disturb the flow of the water. This made it abundantly clear to him that he needed to train himself again if he wanted to regain his former prowess.

"Wow gaki," Jiraiya exclaimed, "that was amazing."

"To me it was not." Naruto replied calmly, still looking down at his feet.

Jiraiya chose to ignore Naruto's current statement and instead chose to say something of his own, "Kid, don't worry too much about it. Fact is you can walk on water now…looks like the Gogyō Kaiin was the key to this."

"No…all that seal did was awaken my slumbering abilities." Naruto began, "While I can walk on water and churn out strong attacks, I cannot do it to the same effect as before. I need to train."

"Well luckily for you, the finals are a month away, so there's no rush." Jiraiya said.

Naruto was about to question what this man had said, before he remembered that shortly before the ordeal that caused his past persona to merge with him, he had been trying to train for the finals of the Chunin Exam which were, as Jiraiya put it, a month away.

A small smirk made its way onto Naruto's face as he said, "That's all the time I need."

xxXXxx

Naruto stood at the centre of a group of trees, with his eyes closed, not even bothering with anything else that was around him. He seemed to be at peace with himself, so much so that he looked like he was sleeping upright. That train of thought would have been quashed a second later because Naruto slowly moved into his battle stance. He placed one foot in front of another and brought his hands closer to his chest. All of this occurred with closed eyes.

As soon as his eyes snapped open however, he sprang into action. He went into a series of kata, trying to get his new body to get accustomed to his old fighting style. He felt weird, practising his old moves in a shorter body, but he did not let that thought dominate his head, because he instead chose to focus on his movements.

He imagined himself being attacked by multiple men, ten to be exact. He ducked under the first man's punch, grabbing hold of his wrist while simultaneously diving down and sweeping another off their feet. Without even pausing Naruto swung the one whose wrist he held at another assailant before he jumped into the air in order to avoid a hail of kunai being thrown at him.

Naruto cocked his fist back while he was in the air, before he brought it down onto his closest enemy, who fortunately for him (the enemy), rolled out of the way. Naruto's fist impacted with the ground with such a tremendous force that it cratered, the size of the crater being three times that of the punch. Naruto could sense another assailant try to jump him from behind. He dragged his right foot on the ground, saturating the earth with his chakra through his foot, before he flung this foot backwards into the air. This caused a big portion of earth to dislodge and launch like a projectile at the attacker. This surprised the assailant greatly, and he was caught square on the chest by the projectile.

Naruto stood up and performed a round house kick at nothing but thin air. The earth projectile launched in the direction of the kick, surprising another assailant long enough to get face smacked by the boulder, knocking him out cold. Naruto brought his hands up past his head, willing the boulder to shoot to the sky, and as soon as it reached its apex, he brought his hands down swiftly, making sure that they spread while he did so. The boulder broke off into two pieces and then rained down on two more surprised victims.

Naruto decided to stop using the boulder as a means of attacking his opponents and went back to pure hand to hand combat. Too bad his opponents did not think along the same lines as him. They attacked with a variation of weapons. They were throwing kunai, shuriken and a host of other things at their opponent. Naruto realised he would not be able to escape in time, so he bent down on his knees and started spinning on his right leg. This caused him to gather up the surrounding air in a small cyclone. He then stretched his arms out, and as if acting on his unspoken command the wind blew back all of the weapons. The weapons rushed back to their owners at three times the speed they were initially thrown, catching the owners off guard long enough for them to either get lacerated by them, or get killed by them.

By the end of the small cyclone Naruto counted only three opponents left. They looked at him with burning determination, before they rushed at him, looking to end him. Naruto brought his right hand to his face. He dropped all of his fingers save his index and middle finger. He then channelled chakra to the tips of his fingers, watching as they were coated in a dark blue substance, before Naruto made a slicing motion towards his three opponents.

As if they, and the two trees behind them were cut by a sword, the trio fell down, face first into the earth. The trees behind them had a slash mark that appeared that caused it to separate as it was cleanly cut into two. Naruto looked at the fingers that were just coated with blue energy and sighed. His techniques still lacked control.

"Is it over?" He heard a voice say a few metres outside the tree lining.

"I believe it is." replied another voice.

Naruto turned and slowly made his way over to the voices. When he got to where they were he was greeted by the sight of Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage standing with Jiraiya. Both men looked at him with awe in their eyes after the display of skill he had just unleashed. They could not see exactly who he was fighting with, but his movements were not that of a twelve year old, they were of an experienced fighter. One who could challenge anyone that stood in his way.

"Sup jiji, Ero-sennin." Naruto said brightly.

"Sup?" Jiraiya said, "What happened to the new you that spoke in a noble-like manner?"

"He died." Naruto said. There were a few moments of silence between the three males, before they all burst out laughing at the same time.

"HAHAHA!" their laughter could be heard loud and clearly.

After what seemed like a long time, they all calmed down enough for Naruto to explain, "Over the last two weeks, both of my personalities have been merging to form a complete being. During the first few days my past life was more dominant due to it being the strong force, but the old me has slowly crawled his way back."

"I see." The Sandaime said sagely. His Hokage robes fluttered in the wind slightly as he assessed everything that he knew about the current situation.

The Sandaime had felt a huge chakra surge that day two weeks ago. He was pretty sure every shinobi worth their money could feel that chakra. It spoke of power, destruction and a whole lot of other things. He had immediately consulted his crystal ball and he saw Naruto and Jiraiya duking it out. Of course Jiraiya won, but the display of power Naruto showed put the old man on edge. After he had been informed by Jiraiya about what was happening to the blonde, Hiruzen took some time off his busy schedule to try and look in on Naruto, and suffice to say he was totally blown away.

"What was that move that you performed with the boulder?" the Sandaime asked, "It seemed as if it was obeying your will telepathically."

"I simply saturated a small piece of earth with my chakra before I used it as weapon, bending the chakra within it to my will." Naruto replied.

The Sandaime was shocked by what he heard. Something of this nature would take chakra control that was probably on par with Senju Tsunade. For Naruto to perform something like this, it was quite extraordinary.

"Well that is something else entirely." Jiraiya proclaimed with a small whistle.

"Yeah, it is pretty cool. I cannot believe that my past self was so inventive when I came to techniques." Naruto said, before he got a downcast look on his face, "It makes me wonder if I was ever going to be this good if I did not awaken this past me."

Jiraiya smirked at the boy before he said, "What's with the downtrodden look kid? It doesn't suit you…but to answer your question all I will say is that we will never know. Just use what you have and see if you can't accomplish your goals then kid. There's no use crying over spilt milk, just take what you've been dealt with and use it to the best of your ability."

"You're right." Naruto said after a few moments of silence. He liked this mature side of Jiraiya, it showed that the man truly was a legendary shinobi. Despite this though Naruto knew he still had many obstacles along the way that he needed to accomplish. One of them was relearning how to use natural energy since this body was not naturally attuned to it, and he also needed to learn how to use Inton and Yōton (Yin and Yang) again.

"I still need to master my Inton and Yōton all over again. I can use it, but not to the same degree as before." Naruto said, thinking back to his last jutsu that sliced up his three imaginary opponents. It should not have cut the trees that were behind them, he was not aiming for them. He clearly needed to work on his techniques.

"Well if you want, I can help you with that." Jiraiya said.

Naruto wanted to refute the man's offer to help him, but he decided against going at this solo. Who knows, maybe the man had a way for him to master this before the Chunin Exam finals. Asura was sure that while the quality in warriors declined over the centuries, there were new methods for learning that had been created specifically for this moment.

"Yeah sure…what do you have in mind?" Naruto asked.

"Nothing much…" Jiraiya said smugly, before he bit his thumb, drawing a drop of blood from it, ran through a string of hand seals at a very fast rate, and then he slammed his palm on the ground and cried out, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Technique)."

White smoke enveloped the area, blanketing it for a few seconds, before it disappeared and revealed a toad that was larger than Naruto himself that held a scroll. Naruto looked at Jiraiya with a quizzical look as the man proudly said, "I'll teach you how to summon."

xxXXxx

**Chapter End**

**And that ends the first chapter of my brand new story, Transmigration. For those who are wondering about my other story The Right Hand of Fate, don't worry, I have not given up on that story. I just haven't found the correct stimuli to help me write it. In other words I got writers block. **

**This is my first 10K+ chapter on this site. I certainly hope it isn't my last.**

**Next chapter: Greatness**

**I'm just going to end this A/N here. If you have any questions or queries then PM me. **

**This is Thabane Tha Creator and I'm out! **


	2. Chapter 2: Greatness

Chapter Two: Greatness

Naruto instantly frowned when he saw the Kuchiyose being performed. Ever since he merged personalities with Asura, he finally understood exactly how ninjutsu started. Apparently it was a corrupt version of Ninshū, a version that was taught to people so that they could kill other people, not understand them. Something of this nature made him sick. He hated ninjutsu now.

"I refuse to learn ninjutsu!" Naruto said, catching the Sandaime off-guard, "Ero-sennin, you know my stand on ninjutsu, so no. I will not learn that technique."

"Ninjutsu isn't evil Naruto…it's the people that use it that are the ones who are evil." Jiraiya replied.

"I know, you said that three days ago." Naruto replied, "But it was created as a tool to kill. It is not like Ninshū which was created to help people understand each other."

"And yet somehow you use this benevolent Ninshū art to help you fight…how is it different from Ninjutsu?" Jiraiya asked scepticism clear on his visage.

"As I said before _Ero-sennin_," Naruto put extra emphasis on Jiraiya's nickname just to aggravate the man, "My fath- the Rikudō's teachings were meant to inspire peace…what you saw me use right now was not Ninshū. I was simply manipulating chakra just as I had been taught by my father and others during my previous life."

"Well I don't care how you sugar coat it kid. The fact of the matter is that you use an art form that is probably more dangerous than Ninjutsu itself. I mean, being able to use all five elements with such ease that you can throw around A-ranked jutsu without weaving hand signs…what you use is like Ninjutsu, _but on steroids_." Jiraiya said.

"I told you, I don't use jutsu, so don't say that I throw around A-ranked Jutsu." Naruto warned the man.

"Whatever floats your boat, kid." Jiraiya replied casually, folding his arms over his chest.

Throughout the entire argument, Sarutobi Hiruzen had chosen to remain quite, silently observing the interaction with a keen look in his eyes. Throughout the debate he was able to pick up on something that Jiraiya probably did not. If he did pick up on it he certainly chose not to act on it.

As the duo continued to argue back and forth, Hiruzen cleared his throat, grabbing their attention instantly. Such was the presence of the Hokage that even Naruto, in his newly awakened state still paid attention to the man. It would be stupid not to pay attention to a man touted as God of Shinobi.

Seeing that he had their attention, the Sandaime Hokage spoke in a voice that had a dominant aura around it, "If I may say something…" The old man began, "throughout the entire argument, Naruto, you kept talking from the perspective of Asura…"

"So what of it?" Naruto asked, not really sure about where the old man was headed with this.

"I want to know what Uzumaki Naruto thinks about all of this." Hiruzen answered sagely.

There were a few moments of silence, before Naruto tilted his head slightly and said, "Huh?"

The Sandaime Hokage sighed internally. Despite Naruto merging with the son of the Rikudō, something he still found hard to believe even though he knew was true, the boy was still an idiot.

"When you speak up against Ninjutsu, you do so with the mind set of someone that only knows Ninshū teachings. You speak up against Ninjutsu because the dominant persona within you is that of Asura, but I can tell that you Naruto, the true you is in there, just like you said before when you said that the old you is slowly resurfacing and merging with this Asura. After all, you've used Ninjutsu in the past and seen how much good it can do." Hiruzen explained.

"So you're saying that I hate Ninjutsu because of Asura?" Naruto asked, already getting the gist of where this was headed. He also thought about the old man's last sentence about Ninjutsu performing good deeds, and his mind immediately rushed to Nami no Kuni.

"Precisely." Hiruzen said, before he added, "I want to know what you as Uzumaki Naruto thinks of Ninjutsu, and possibly learning the Kuchiyose no Jutsu. Think hard about this Naruto."

Naruto looked at the two men before him for a tense few seconds. He did not need to look into their eyes in order to see that they were looking at him expectantly. They wanted to know what he, Uzumaki Naruto, thought about all of this. Naruto wanted to say that he hated Ninjutsu from the knowledge he gained from Asura, but he quickly shot down that thought because he knew that the old him, _the real him_, would have jumped at the chance of learning such a technique. With that thought crossing his mind, Naruto had reached his decision. He internally smirked as he could now see why the old man was nicknamed the Professor. The man's mind was something else.

"Fine." He said with a pout, "I'll learn this Kuchiyose no Jutsu of yours, Ero-sennin."

Jiraiya beamed at that. The kid was going to become a toad summoner just like him. Oh happy days.

"One thing though…how will this help improve my chakra control and re-master _Onmymōton_ (Yin-Yang Release)?" Naruto asked.

"The use of non-elemental ninjutsu, such as your Kage Bunshin no Jutsu and the Kuchiyose no Jutsu work on the principles of Onmymōton. What Jiraiya is hoping to do is to increase your control over non-elemental ninjutsu by having you learn how to summon."

"I see…" Naruto replied in understanding. He could see the merits of such a learning method. He silently wondered if his first father had knowledge of the technique.

"Alright then," Hiruzen said to the duo, "I've got to get back to my office. I will see you both…whenever it is that I get the time to do so."

And with that said, the Sandaime Hokage disappeared in a plume of white smoke.

As soon as the old man was out of the clearing, Naruto turned to Jiraiya and, with as much gusto as he possible, said, "Let's do this!"

xxXXxx

Two weeks ago

Konoha was a vast village. It spanned great distances, covered many acres of land and it was very safe place to be in. But it was not always like this. There was a time when the village was the most unsafe place to be in, for both adults and children. People disappeared from the face of the earth as if they had never been there before. Children were plucked out of orphanages without anyone seeing, and they would never be heard from ever again. Eventually though, the culprit responsible for this entire fiasco was finally discovered, after victim number sixty disappeared as well.

This culprit was the great Sandaime Hokage's prized pupil, Orochimaru of the Densetsu no Sannin.

Orochimaru, apparently, had used his victims in various experiments that resulted in all of their deaths. The experiment centred mainly on the use of the Shodai Hokage's DNA to try and use his fabled Mokuton (Wood Release). It was a good thing that all of those people died because if Orochimaru had been successful with his experimentation, there was no telling what kind of hell he would unleash on the world.

The man fled from Konoha, promising that he would one day return to burn the village to the ground. No one really knew why he wanted to do such a thing. Whether it was out of spite or something else entirely, it remained unknown. Orochimaru's base of operations was sealed off from the world, with no one besides those with strict clearance from the Hokage, being able to enter the madman's former lab.

What they did not count on unfortunately, was Orochimaru himself returning to his lab, because if they did, then the village would know of this by now since that is where the man was right now.

Orochimaru was currently going through some old files that involved his earlier studies in the Shodai's DNA. His greasy black hair acted like a curtain that obscured the dim light that existed in the dusty lab from illuminating his sickly pale face. He skimmed through file after file, moving from one section of the decommissioned lab to another section of it. It was clear that whatever he was looking for was not found yet.

"Orochimaru-sama." A voice suddenly spoke from the shadows, catching Orochimaru's attention.

"Ah, Kabuto…what have you got for me with regards to my next host?" Orochimaru said, not bothering to turn around and look at the person he was speaking to. This Kabuto person did not seem to mind though, because he stayed within the confines of the shadows and continued talking with the man that was regarded as the genius among the Sannin.

"Hatake Kakashi took him out of the village to a secluded area. I don't know where he is exactly, but finding him won't be hard." Kabuto said from the shadows, not a single piece of him was visible.

"That's what Kakashi is counting on…" Orochimaru let it hang at that. He was sure that Kabuto would know what he meant. With him (Orochimaru) after Sasuke, he (Kakashi) took the boy to a secluded environment that would allow him to watch over the boy properly. This also allowed Kakashi to be able to sense oncoming threats easier than before due to there being a lack of people around. It was quite ingenious, yet also risky because he could go after Sasuke himself, and then kill Kakashi…but that would raise too many red flags. Someone like Kakashi must have contingencies in place to make sure that Sasuke stayed out of his hands, or at least people would know the instant that he died.

Orochimaru's musings on Hatake Kakashi and Uchiha Sasuke stopped dead in their tracks when his eyes caught something. He took out a page that was in a file and put it on the table. He then proceeded to make gagging sounds, as if he was puking. After a few seconds of doing this, the man regurgitated a green scroll. The scroll was covered in his saliva and looked to be slightly worn out. Orochimaru flicked his hand that held the scroll, sending all of the saliva coating it flying and splashing on the ground.

Orochimaru unfurled the scroll on the table, and then he took the page that he withdrew from the file and laid it next to the scroll. He silently contemplated whatever it was that he saw on these two items, before he brought his finger up and illuminated it in blue chakra at the tip. He placed it on an empty part of the scroll and he moved it. Where ever the finger graced, it left a black mark. The black markings it left behind on the open scroll ended up looking like mathematical formulas. He kept on writing on the scroll, unfurling it further and further whenever he ran out of space, until he suddenly stopped writing with his finger.

There were a tense few moments of silence within the dark lab as Orochimaru did not bother to move. He looked at the page with an unreadable expression, before his face suddenly split into a grin so sinister that it would have made any person's skin crawl.

"Orochimaru-sama, what exactly was your purpose for coming here?" Kabuto asked from the shadows.

Orochimaru did not reply immediately, choosing instead to just stare at the scroll with a gleeful expression on his face. He then looked over his shoulder, specifically where Kabuto's voice originated from and said, "Kabuto…you felt it yesterday, did you not?"

"You mean that powerful chakra that no one could pinpoint where it originated from?" Kabuto asked. Seeing Orochimaru nod he said, "Of course I did…I think only genin would not have felt that powerful presence. Why do you ask?"

Orochimaru's grin faltered slightly for a second. He was disappointed that Kabuto had not figured out what he was here for. It was alright though; he would enlighten his perplexed underling, "A man of my position cannot afford to take chances. With what I have planned for Konoha within the forthcoming weeks I want to make sure that there are no mistakes, and with what I have found here, even that powerful presence, whether or not it belongs to Konoha, will make little difference in the grand scheme of things."

Kabuto nodded his head in understanding at that, but he still had one more question that had not been answered, "What is it that you have found exactly, Orochimaru-sama?"

When asked about his findings Orochimaru just chuckled, before he said, "What I have discovered Kabuto, is a way to bring Konoha to its knees."

With that said the man's dark laugh echoed throughout the dark and dusty lab.

xxXXxx

Training ground Zero, or better known as the Hokage's Battleground, was a training field that only the Hokage, or someone the Hokage personally authorised, could use. It was the only place in the entire village where only they could enter and it was the only place within the village that allowed for the Hokage to secretly train themselves far away from prying eyes. It had been created by Senju Tobirama shortly after he ascended to the position of Hokage, and after his untimely demise, it was used by his successors the Sandaime, and later on the Yondaime. Its location was highly confidential.

After the Kyūbi ran rampant through the village nearly thirteen years ago, the training field had not been put to good use ever again.

"_Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu (Fire Release: Grand Fireball Technique)!"_

Until now…

A giant fireball was launched by a shinobi garbed in black pants, a matching colour vest with grey upper body armour over the vest and matching colour arm guards. The shinobi also had a ninjato strapped to their back along with a white porcelain mask that was shaped to resemble a rat. The fireball he had unleashed blazed a path towards the lone figure of an old man wearing a black battle suit and samurai-like head gear.

The old man currently had his hands weaving through different hand seals until he clapped his hands together and said, "Doton: Doryūheki (Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall)!"

The old man spat out what looked like mud in a semi-circle. He stood on the mud and watched as it expanded towards the sky, and while it grew he weaved through more hand seals and said, "Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu (Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique).

As the wall reached its apex, easily dwarfing the fireball, the man on the wall spat out his technique. The jutsu, which was water shaped in the form of a serpentine dragon, rushed towards the rat mask wearing shinobi, who quickly ducked out of the way of the attack by rolling under it. When he came to his feet he found that the old man he was fighting was no longer on the wall he had created. The old man's water technique splashed through the small clearing, wetting the ground.

Before he could have anytime to look for the old man, he suddenly felt electricity course through him with such ferocity that he blacked out in seconds, his body going limp and falling on to the wet ground he had made the gaffe of standing on. If he had looked back he would have seen the old man with his hand on the wet surface and electricity running through it.

Looking at the old man's face, one could tell that he was very annoyed right now. He looked around the training field, before his eyes settled on a couple of moving shadows in standard ANBU formation, ghosting through the trees that surrounded the Hokage, before they went into hiding.

"C'mon! Is this supposed to be the Hokage's personal guard?" Sarutobi Hiruzen said in a commanding tone, "Is this supposed to be ANBU? All I see are a bunch of sissies that I overpay to just die without accomplishing anything!"

The man was clearly looking to provoke them by the looks of things, and he nearly succeeded in angering them because one of the shadows moved a bit too hastily, allowing the Hokage to spot it instantly and unleash a hail of Kunai and shuriken upon it, but a last second substitution saved the shinobi's life.

"Was that supposed to be stealth? Uzumaki Naruto is stealthier than you all from the looks of it! And he can do it in broad daylight wearing nothing but bright orange!" Hiruzen shouted.

Why was he insulting and beating up his own personal guard? Hiruzen had just received a wakeup call two days ago when he felt a powerful presence within the walls of Konoha. He found out a few hours later that said presence was none other than Uzumaki Naruto unleashing a torrent of chakra upon the world, and apparently it was not even half of the chakra he currently possessed. How could Kage level reserves not be enough to even fill half the quota when it came to someone's chakra reserves? He could understand Bijū being this way since they were living chakra, but for a human? That was absurd.

And from what Jiraiya told him, the boy was able to keep up with him when he (Jiraiya) unleashed about three quarters of his strength. This had Hiruzen stumped, for the umpteenth time. Ever since Naruto had become a genin he had stumped Hiruzen at every turn. He learned a B-rank kinjutsu in a matter of hours, saved an entire country on his first outing in the real world, granted that he did not do it alone, which resulted in said country opening excellent trading routes for Konoha and Hi no Kuni. Now there was this…at his current rate of progression the boy would surpass him by the tie he turned fifteen, and that was a scary thought.

What if Naruto decided to cut all ties with Konoha? He would not have thought about it before, but with his new personality taking over he (Hiruzen) just could not be too sure. He could not have an underling that was stronger than him. This tended to create a lack of respect, and one wrong argument could see to Naruto leaving Konoha and become a missing-nin. If the strongest shinobi in his village was weaker than him, then who could stop him? He did not want thoughts like that dancing around Naruto's head, and as such he decided to take up training again, something he had not done in ages.

If he was honest with himself with his initial scrutiny of his current standing in terms of power and skill, it would be safe to say that Jiraiya was stronger than him, but only just. The ANBU he was fighting were actually giving him a tougher time than he let on. He was supposed to be a symbol of strength, yet here he was, practically withering away like an old man that was waiting for death to take him. This thought disgusted him. He was supposed to be the Shinobi no Kami (God of Shinobi), and yet he was more like a Jonin.

Things had to change.

He had to thank Naruto for reigniting his Hi no Ishi (Will of Fire), it seemed as if peace had made him complacent. He was no longer the shinobi that had fearlessly stared down the Kyūbi with nothing but a bo staff in hand. He wanted that shinobi to come back to the world.

Two ANBU operatives burst from the shadows from different directions. One came from the right while the other came from the left. The operatives drew out their swords and slashed at their Hokage. They had been told by their Hokage not to hold back in the slightest when attacking him. It was not like they were stupid enough to do it. After all, who would hold back against the Shinobi no Kami?

Sarutobi Hiruzen saw the slashes being aimed at him, one coming in high while other came in low. Instead of trying to squeeze himself into the small space the operatives left in the middle, like he would have done in his older days, Hiruzen simply jumped into the air and surprised everyone that was there by landing on the blade of the one from the left, who came in high.

Before either shinobi could react to his impromptu move, Hiruzen performed a backflip, kicking the man whose sword his stood on, and landed on the sword of the man that came in low while simultaneously grabbing the ninjato of the man that he had sent flying backwards into the dirt and used it to cut the bicep of the arm that held the blade he currently stood on. Just as the bicep he had cut caused the arm that held the sword that he stood on to go slack, Hiruzen jumped off the blade and landed back on the ground, ninjato still in hand.

The ANBU operative whose bicep he had sliced slightly looked at him through the small holes in his mask. He flipped the blade he held in his right hand onto his left hand.

'Ah, I almost forgot that he was ambidextrous.' Hiruzen silently mused.

Hiruzen then made the come hither sign with his free left hand. The man rushed at Hiruzen with his sword drawn back; clearly he had a personalised kenjutsu style since that was not the one Konoha ANBU were taught. The operative, Gachou (Goose), attacked Hiruzen ferociously with his sword, forcing the aged Hokage to backpedal and defending against the stabs, slashes and powerful strikes. Hiruzen continued to stay on the defence as Gachou piled on the offense. Their blades crossed paths and locked with each other after about two minutes of Gachou failing to land anything but one scratch on Hiruzen.

While their blades were locked with each other, Gachou's blade, which was slightly shinier than the one Hiruzen was using, allowed him to see something moving on the ground behind him, headed towards him. It was a long black tendril that crept up to him quietly. He now understood why kenjutsu specialists like Gachou and Fukurō (Owl) were sent out first. They were meant to distract him long enough that Kuma (Bear) would be able to use his clan's Kage Mane no Jutsu on him.

'Too bad their plan was foiled by a new shiny sword.' Hiruzen thought, before he substituted with the unconscious body of Nezumi (Rat), allowing him a small reprieve. He internally sighed at having to take a small reprieve in battle. This would not have happened a decade ago. He needed to get back to his former strength, or at least something close to it.

He saw Gachou rush at him and he internally sighed once again.

'Let's get this over with.' The aged warrior mentally intoned, before he got into a defensive stance with the ninjato still in his possession.

xxXXxx

Present Time

Being a person that had two personalities melded into one was something that Uzumaki Naruto found to be stressful for his psyche. He could not decipher who he was even after two weeks of trying to get used to the duel identities fighting for dominance within him. Right now he was currently lying on his bed after the end of another day of training. He was trying to incorporate some of Asura's skills into himself. He was having moderate success with that right now.

Many thoughts plagued his head as he tried to make sense of them. He was supposedly someone that could fight on par with a Kage-level shinobi, yet he was only twelve. His training with Jiraiya involved him learning the Kuchiyose no Jutsu from the man, but that created a conflict within himself.

He understood that ninjutsu dominated the current world, but he also wanted to know exactly what it was that caused humanity to leave behind the teachings of Ninshū and adopt the lethal art of Ninjutsu. It did not make any sense to him. The more he thought about it, the more he realised that he would never be able to figure it out on his own. He needed the counsel of someone older and wiser than him. He needed the counsel of someone that knew of the world's workings. Maybe someone like his Ji-chan.

He felt a yawn escape through his lips, signifying his tired state of mind. Seeing that he had nothing left to do, he just let the fatigue he felt from the day's training pull him into a deep slumber.

Naruto's eyes snapped open and he found himself standing in front of the gigantic jail cell that housed the Kyūbi. Right now though, there was nothing but darkness behind the bars of the cell. He wondered how he had ended up here, but then chose to ignore that thought. If he was here then he might as well make the best of it.

"Hey Kyū- Kurama!" Naruto shouted at the darkness that prevailed inside the cell.

There were a few moments of silence within the confines of the cell, before the entity that was inside the cell released a large amount of air. This caused Naruto's hair and clothes to flutter backwards for a few seconds, before it all went back to normal.

"**You have not yet earned the right to even speak that name, human.**" Kurama growled out in annoyance.

Naruto saw two eyes float in the darkness for a few seconds, before they were joined by a group of razor sharp teeth. He stared down the monstrosity fearlessly, making sure to not even blink as he said, "Well it's better than calling you Kyūbi, that's for sure."

Kurama growled once more, before he said, "**I don't care…you have no right to call me by that name**."

"Oh, and Asura did? Was it because he was born before you were created? Huh?" Naruto asked vehemently. He would have asked if it was due to the fact that Asura was the Sage's son, but chose not to because he 'remembered' Kurama having a deep dislike for Indra.

"**No. Asura is part of a select group of humans I would never devour…he treats me with respect just as I do the same for him. You, on the other hand, are nothing but an insect that I can crush under my paw!**" Kurama replied in anger. He did not want to tell Naruto that the other reason was because Asura was more power than he was.

"Wanna bet?" Naruto said those words with a steeled expression, his eyes narrowing dangerously, staring down the Kyūbi.

Kurama felt insulted that a mere human child thought he could take him, the mightiest of the bijū, on. He wanted to laugh but could not because he was angry; really, really angry, "**You better tread carefully brat…just because you have Asura's powers doesn't mean you can use them like he could…you're a long way away from using such powers. Pick your fights carefully.**"

Kurama's tone had an underlying danger to it that made Naruto want to take a step back, but chose not to. He was not going to be out chickened by a fox.

"I should say the same for you. Pick _your_ fights carefully, _Kurama_." Naruto accentuated Kurama's name just to agitate the fox. He was showing it that he was not afraid of it any longer. Not when he had all of the information he needed to defeat the fox, all courtesy of his past self.

Kurama growled angrily at the blonde boy, his paw came out of the shadows and struck the bars of the cell really hard and really fast. This unexpected move caused Naruto to flinch slightly.

Okay, so maybe he was still afraid of the fox.

"I didn't come here to fight!" The blonde shinobi said.

"**Then why are you here**_**, boy**_**?**" Kurama said, punctuating on the word _boy_ just to annoy Naruto.

Naruto, while a little miffed at being called a boy, stilled his rising anger and looked the fox in the eyes and said, "I don't know…I came here shortly after falling asleep…I was thinking about…ah, that's it!"

Naruto snapped his fingers together as a smile adorned his face and he said, "Kurama…" this elicited a growl from the fox, but he chose to ignore it and moved on to a more pressing matter, "you've seen the world evolve ever since you were created by the Rikudō…tell me, what caused the world to give up on Ninshū."

Kurama came out of the shadows completely and glared at the boy with so much hate that if it could kill, Naruto would have died a hundred and fifty times over, "**You come here and insult me, and then you ask me to tell you why the world gave up on Ninshū?! You are beyond stupid, you annoying brat.**"

Naruto silently cursed his own lack of respect and stupidity. If he and Asura had merged into one being, then would he not have gained the holy man's persona…oh wait, he did. Asura's memories told him of the type of person the man had been growing up, and he was exactly like him in nearly every single way. The only difference was that Asura had family, and he did not.

Despite all of that though, he felt the urge to apologise to the great fox that stood before him in all of its glory, "Sorry…"

It was but a whisper shared between the two of them, but Naruto was pretty confident that Kurama heard it loud and clear. He silently looked at the great fox, hoping that he would accept his apology, but after roughly two minutes of staring into each other's eyes, Naruto got the gist of what the fox wanted. So without another word uttered between them, Naruto turned on his heels, and silently exited the mind scape.

xxXXxx

Training Ground Zero

The sound of a battle being waged would be the first thing that would greet anyone that dared venture off into the Hokage's Battleground. It was a very intense one if gauging by the sounds emanating from the training field. If one took a closer look they would have seen Sarutobi Hiruzen standing in a small clearing, with a host of unconscious bodies lying at his feet, and a snare marring his facial features.

"Three ANBU platoons, THREE!" Hiruzen shouted at the top of his lungs, "Are you all truly so pathetic that you can't even defeat an old man?"

Hiruzen had been training relentlessly every day, goin up against tough odds just so he could push himself past his limits. He wanted to make sure that he was back to being at a level he would have been proud of. His current level was almost at the level that he wanted it to be at. He wanted to see just how far he could go in battle. He would have been a senile old fool if he thought that he could match the prowess he had in his prime. He was really old now, but that was no excuse not to give it his all, and then some, when it came to his training.

The current number of opponents he faced were three ANBU platoons. He chose these three platoons because they had people that specialised in every single shinobi art that there was. Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, Genjutsu, Bukijutsu, Fūinjutsu and even a couple of Hiden Jutsu, which were largely Konoha clan's' secret techniques. Hiruzen wanted to face them all, see how far he could go before keeling over from exhaustion.

The ANBU platoons had been cut down as if they were nothing by the Shinobi no Kami. He had made light work of any taijutsu and kenjutsu specialists. The tough ones were ninjutsu specialists and genjutsu specialists. Those that used clan techniques were not that much of a challenge either for the man due to the fact that he knew how each of their clan's techniques worked, and he had long since developed a way to counter them all. He was not called the Professor for nothing.

Hiruzen saw a gigantic shadow looming from above his own, and he knew exactly what was going to happen. It was the Baika no Jutsu (Expansion Technique) of the Akimichi clan. Without even going through the necessary hand seals, Hiruzen slammed his palm on the ground and shouted "Kuchiyose: Enkōō Enma (Summoning: Monkey King Enma)!"

There was a small plume of white smoke that enveloped Hiruzen, before it disappeared a second later and was replaced by the image of a white haired bipedal monkey that wore a black suit with mesh armour underneath a sleeveless kimono with white fur trimmings and tiger stripes. The monkey saw the looming shadow and knew exactly what its partner wanted. Without being told what to do, he simply shouted, "Henge (Transform)!" and transformed into a black and white adamantine staff that was quickly pitched to the ground with one end, like a flag pole, while the other end faced upwards.

"Extend!" Hiruzen shouted, and the staff obeyed its summoners command and grew in length and intercepted the falling Akimichi right in the kisser, making every male that was watching wince upon impact. A hand came out of the side of the staff and quickly flipped the Akimichi over, changing his trajectory and making him land on his back, far away from Hiruzen. The man who was currently in a lot of pain simply shrunk in size until he was in his normal state, which was relatively on the plus side of the scale.

Before he could do anything though, he was suddenly surrounded by earth that moved to cover his entire body save for his head. He looked up in time to see the Sandaime land on where his belly would have been had it not been covered in earth. The Sandaime shifted his foot on the man's earthen belly and black markings appeared all over him.

"Now you're locked in place." was all the Akimichi heard his Hokage say.

Hiruzen, with Enma in hand, looked at the surrounding tree and sweat trickling down his brow. He had been at this for slightly over an hour now, if his guess was correct, but that meant nothing to him. As he scouted his surroundings, trying to see what his underlings might do, he suddenly felt a presence approach the training ground, one which he had not felt in a _very_ long time.

Hiruzen looked towards the gate that sealed off training ground zero, before he held up the ram hand seal, which commanded the gate to open. On the other side of the gate stood a man that had shaggy black hair, a bandage wrapped around his forehead and his right eye, a face that had a bulbous nose and a few wrinkles here and there, and an x shaped scar on his chin. The man wore a white shirt, with a dark grey robe over the top of his shirt, and the robe went from his right shoulder down to his feet. His right arm, which was badly damaged during the Third Shinobi War, was now concealed inside his robes in a strap. His left hand held a cane that he used as a means of supporting himself.

The ANBU that had been fighting Hiruzen, the ones that were not restrained or out-cold, quickly jumped and stood beside their Hokage, while the other's remained hidden. Hiruzen quickly waved his hand, as if shooing the ANBU that stood beside him away, and they complied, scattering into the trees and staying hidden there. Hiruzen approached the man that had walked into his training ground, Enma still in hand. Once they were within five feet of each other they both stopped and stared at each other coolly.

There were a tense few moments of silence between the two old men. The only thing that could be heard was the gentle wind blowing through the area. The tension between them was steadily growing within the atmosphere of training ground zero. Even the hidden ANBU could feel the tension between the two old men. It was so thick in the air that you could cut it with a knife. The two men continued to look at each other for a few more seconds, neither saying anything to the other, before they both suddenly let small smiles grace their features. Their smiles did not destroy the tension that was there, but merely diluted it.

"Danzō, it's good to see you old friend." Hiruzen said with a small smile of his own.

"Hiruzen." Danzō responded with a curt nod.

"Too what do I owe this pleasure?" Hiruzen asked. Hiruzen may have been many things, but a fool he was not. He knew that Danzō was here for an important reason, one which Hiruzen could likely guess.

"Straight to the point, huh, old friend." Danzō said, using the same term to describe what Hiruzen was to him.

Hiruzen did not answer immediately; instead he chose to walk towards the gates that lead into and out of the training ground. He knew Danzō would follow him so he did not say anything. As he walked at a brisk pace, Danzō caught up to him, and they continued walking together in silence. It was less than a minute afterwards that Hiruzen reignited their conversation.

"You confuse the smile on my face as a friendly gesture, but we both know that it is anything but." Hiruzen said sagely.

"Then why smile if you don't mean it, old friend?" Danzō asked, his small smile disappearing from his face.

"Think of it as a courtesy to the man you once were. The man who _was_ my best friend." Hiruzen stated calmly.

"We still are best friends…" Danzō said. It held some truth to it. Hiruzen was the only person Danzō referred to as a friend throughout the entire continent.

"Perhaps you are right, Danzō. We may still be best friends…but then again one could never be too sure when dealing with the devil." Hiruzen said, still keeping his calm tone.

"Oh, so I'm the devil now, huh?" Danzō asked with a hint of sarcasm.

"What else would you call yourself, Danzō?" Hiruzen said, his face finally losing the smile it once had, "I mean you have continuously gone against my back on numerous occasions and did as you pleased…you even tried to kill me, remember?"

Danzō scowled at that. He remembered having planned on assassinating Hiruzen once before, but it was thanks to that brat Hatake Kakashi that his plan failed. In all likelihood Danzō thought that he should be dead right now, but Hiruzen's naivety is the only reason why he was still alive today. Danzō hated being reminded of that incident because it was a great failure of his, and he let it be known that he did not like it by saying, "I can't believe that _you_ of all people are bringing up old grudges."

"Yes, I am bringing it up!" Hiruzen said in a voice that dripped with authority, "You tried to have your so-called best friend killed just so you could have the one thing that has always eluded you. The title of Hokage. I realise now that I should have dealt with you differently than the way I did a few years ago."

Danzō was stumped by this. He had not expected Hiruzen to act like this. Seeing Hiruzen speak like this reminded him of their prime, when Danzō was somewhat afraid of Hiruzen. Now he was bringing up an incident that happened a little over a decade ago and he was saying that he should have either imprisoned him or worse. Just what was going on with his _old friend_?

As if he was reading his thoughts Hiruzen said, "My Hi no Ishi has long since diminished from what it once was…"

'Ah, that explains it.' Danzō rationalised. The Senju's falsified belief that has caused Hiruzen to make many mistakes in his rule over Konoha was the cause for Hiruzen's current mood. This was a classic example why he always stressed that the best shinobi were those with no emotion at all.

"…however, I have slowly been feeding the flames within me. Now, I know you had a purpose for coming here, old friend, so tell me what it is?" Hiruzen asked.

Danzō, having been shocked by his oldest friend into a slight stupor, regained his bearings and said, "The massive chakra that was felt throughout the village two weeks ago…what is it?"

Hiruzen felt like smirking. He had been on the money when it came to his guess. He had expected Danzō a lot sooner than today. He slightly wondered why he had not come to him before today. His oldest friend actually thought that the chakra belonged to a thing, or to be more precise, a bijū. He knew that the man thought that it was the Kyūbi, and he would be partially right if he had voiced his theory. The chakra did not come from the Kyūbi, but rather its Jinchuriki.

"The answer to your question is simple," Hiruzen began sagely, "what you search for is not a what, but rather a who."

Danzō was shocked by what he heard, although he did not let it show. Hiruzen was insinuating that there was a shinobi, that was currently within Konoha's walls that had the chakra level of a Bijū. It was with that thought that he quickly guessed who his old rival was talking about, "Uzumaki Naruto…so he's got control of the Kyūbi?"

That would be something, at such a young age no less. He knew the boy was being trained by Jiraiya, but still…

"You are right on one count. It is Uzumaki Naruto, but he does not have the Kyūbi under his control." Hiruzen said calmly.

"So the beast took over him?" Danzō asked.

"No…that was all Naruto-kun's doing." Hiruzen said calmly.

"What?!" Danzō could not help but blurt out.

"Yes, Naruto has somehow unlocked some part of his dormant Uzumaki genes, resulting in him gaining excess amounts of chakra." Hiruzen lied, but with Danzō not facing him, the man would never be able to tell. Danzō was no master at interrogation, but having been the leader of an off the books black ops division allowed him to pick up a thing or two. Thankfully for Hiruzen, Danzō was not good enough to sense voice fluctuations. Even if he was, Hiruzen had made sure that his voice was even, making sure to make it sound like he was telling the truth.

"So the boy was the reason for that powerful presence?" Danzō asked.

"Yes…but this is only known by you, me and Jiraiya…I told all the other shinobi not to investigate since I knew who it was." Hiruzen said.

"The less people that know the better it will be to conceal this information." Danzō said.

Hiruzen merely nodded his head in agreement to what Danzō said. Hiruzen then said, "Don't tell me you want to make a power play by going after the boy?"

"Do I look like some cheap, two-bit childish villain that has nothing better to do than cause trouble with underhanded schemes?" Danzō asked rhetorically.

Hiruzen merely laughed at that. It was true, while Danzō was a schemer, so was he; he did not make a power play every time something happened. Only a stupid person would do that, and Danzō was certainly not stupid.

"What of the Uchiha?" Danzō asked.

"If you are referring to Sasuke being mentally unstable since he gained the Curse Mark, don't worry. He's fine. I've had Kakashi keep a close eye on him." Hiruzen answered.

"I see…" was all Danzō said, before the two men continued to walk in silence until they reached the Hokage Tower. Enma, who was still in Hiruzen's hand, simply disappeared in a puff of smoke, while Danzō hobbled away in a different direction. Hiruzen merely shook his head and entered the tower; he had other priorities to attend to than worry about his old friend's machinations.

xxXXxx

Two Weeks Later

Naruto's eyes shot open as he was greeted by the sound of his alarm blaring at him. Its annoying sound was enough to make any sane man insane. He had half a mind to just take the darn device and chuck it at the nearby wall. But alas he had other priorities to attend to. Naruto jumped out of his bed, made his way to the bathroom in his small apartment, before he opened the door and quickly shut it behind him. He emerged a few minutes later, looking fresh and feeling clean. He wore nothing but a towel around his waist.

He walked back into his bedroom, put on some body lotion, before he slipped on a clean pair of underwear. He then walked to a small closet that housed his clothes. He opened it and he was immediately greeted by the sight of the fresh clothes he recently acquired at the behest of Jiraiya. He said the Chunin exam finals deserved to be marked with a new set of clothes, he said something about standing out and making sure the judges remember you. He slipped on an orange pair of pants, a matching colour shirt that had a giant black magatama etched on his chest and abdomen, along with a blue jacket with white sleeves. The cuffs of his jacket had magatama designs going all around them. He slipped on a pair of blue sandals and the blue headband he got from Iruka-sensei.

Once it was all said and done, he looked at himself in the mirror, making sure everything was in place, before he picked up a small pouch and put it on his lower back region. Once he was done with that, he made his way over to the kitchen, where he poured some milk in his cereal, ate it, and then left a few minutes later.

Today was the big day. It was the Chunin Exam finals. He was extremely excited about today's events. He could finally test his strength against the best genin from all over the continent, and see exactly where he ranked in skill. His training over the last month had been arduous to say the least, but he knew he was ready. In fact, he was ready from the moment he first merged personalities with his past self. Sure he had not quite mastered al of the emotional strains that came with having practically two personalities inside of him, but he was coping.

He had taken to meditating to help clear his mind. Asura's memories allowed him to view some of the teachings that he had learned from his father, and meditation was one of them. According to the Rikudō Sennin, meditation is the best tool to help you when you are gathering your thoughts, so that was what Naruto did whenever he was not training to master the powers that were in him, he simply meditated.

Another thing that had helped him in his pursuit to gather himself once again, was the Hokage. The old man had come to see him during his training, and he had suggested that Naruto have a Yamanaka delve into his mind. Suffice to say that Naruto disagreed at first, sighting things like the need for secrecy and a lot more other things. The old man was able to get him to finally agree when he said that he was only going to let Inoichi, Ino's father, delve into his mind.

Apparently the man was greatly respected by the old man and was very good at keeping confidential things…confidential. The man was able to delve into Naruto's mind, hoping to find exactly what the problem was, but when he came up empty-handed, Naruto knew that meditation was going to be his best bet. The old man helped him by teaching him stress relieving techniques, hoping that it could make his meditation easier.

While Naruto was not even closer to being a master of meditation, he was competent enough. He had to chalk it up to having an adult-ish mind. His meditation may not have helped one hundred percent, but he was still able to gain a sense of who he was better than before. He was back to using conjectures and being loud when talking to people, so that meant that he had made a lot of progress. He just was not sure _how much_.

As Naruto thought about this and more, he came across someone sitting at a bench near the park in Konoha. He immediately recognised who this person was and he was immediately riddled with guilt. Her short, indigo hair flowed seamlessly as she as she turned her head and looked at him with eyes that seemed like they had no pupil. As she looked at him, he noticed that her cheeks reddened slightly. Oh well, guess there was no escape for him now.

"Hey Hinata." Naruto greeted nervously. He noticed that the girl's cheeks became slightly redder.

'Great, she's angry at me…just like I thought.' Naruto morbidly thought.

"N-Naruto-kun." Hinata managed to greet back.

There were a few moments of silence; no one was sure about what to say to the other. Surprisingly though, it was Hinata who mastered up the courage to speak to Naruto.

"A-Are you ready, Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked nervously, thinking that Naruto did not want to talk to her.

"Uh- yeah…yeah, I'm ready." Naruto answered, before the atmosphere around them both screamed AWKWARD.

Naruto saw Hinata's head bow down, as if she was in shame, so he quickly asked, "Hinata, what's wrong?"

Hinata's head snapped towards him the second he asked that question, "N-Nothing, N-Naruto-kun."

"Oh…okay." Silence reigned between them, but Naruto grew tired of it and said, "Oh what the heck…listen, I'm terribly sorry for what I did to you!"

Hinata looked at him like he had grown a second head. Chalking it up to him gaining some semblance of adult understanding, because he saw that she was confused, so he said, "I mean…I'm the reason why you got so beat up during the exams. I kept on encouraging you to go at it...looking back now I feel terrible for doing such a thing."

Call it the slight sense of maturity in him, but Naruto had thought about what occurred between Neji and Hinata and he deduced that it was his fault that Hinata ended up hospitalised. If he had simply accepted that Neji was the stronger of the two, then maybe she would not have been put in hospital. Maybe if he had not merged with Asura yet, he would be talking to her about something else, maybe the fear that he once held inside his heart, the fear of disappointing everyone, and especially himself. He might have been too dense to see that he had practically put Hinata in hospital.

Hinata, when he finished speaking, just lowered her head and kept it that way for a few seconds, before she furiously shook it as if not accepting his apology, "I-I refuse." She said resolutely, "I refuse to allow you to think that it was your fault that I got injured."

She then looked up at Naruto, who had a shocked expression on his face, while she spotted a bright blush on her face and a fierce determination at the same time, as she said, "I-I got injured because I was not strong enough. I c-can't let you beat yourself up over it. A-After all, w-we have the same nindo."

_I stand by what I say…_

The words echoed throughout Naruto's mind, not really sure how he should go about using this information he just received.

"I-I'm sorry," Hinata continued, face still red like a tomato, "I-I'm s-sorry if I made you think that it was your fault that I lost. I-It wasn't your fault, N-Naruto-kun."

Naruto continued to look at Hinata with a shocked expression on his face, still not able to comprehend what she was saying.

"That's why…that's why I w-want to make a promise to you, a promise that…o-o-our shared nindo will force me to keep at no matter what." Hinata seemed to have trouble when she said the word 'our', not because she could not say it, but because the implications behind it meant something else to her.

"What is that promise?" Naruto asked after a few moments of silence, finally having found his voice.

Hinata could not believe that she was speaking so much with Naruto. Before, during her days in the academy, she would have killed to have the confidence that she now had, no matter how minuscule it was, to speak to her crush. Now though, the task did not seem so daunting. After he had openly cheered her at the chunin exam preliminaries, the confidence grew within her. His belief in her showed her that maybe, just maybe, there was a way to change her fate. After all, Naruto had been the dead last student at the Academy, and yet here he was, about to go head to head with her cousin Neji, who was the previous year's top graduate, in the Chunin Exam Finals. Now here she was, also using her new found confidence, to speak to him without fainting.

She drew in a lungful of air quietly, before she exhaled it and said, "I promise to get stronger…not just for me, but for y-y-you too." Once again, Hinata seemed to struggle with saying something, because it held a deeper meaning to her than Naruto realised, "You believed in me in my fight against Neji nii-san, so I want to return the favour by getting stronger…for the both of us."

Her words impacted Naruto like nothing before. He did not realise that his words had inspired Hinata so much. His nindo was her nindo, and she just swore on it to get stronger, for them both. Seeing her conviction also inspired something in Naruto. He looked at her and smiled. It was not his big, goofy smile, but a more subtle, yet even warmer smile.

"Arigato, Hinata…I did not realise that my words meant so much to you." Naruto said.

Hinata, seeing his smile, bowed her head slightly, her confidence slowly disappearing, "They do. T-T-They inspire me greatly."

"Then allow me to make a promise as well." Naruto said, "I promise to go out there and win, not only for me, but for you as well. That jerk needs to be put in his place for what he did to you."

And by jerk he meant her cousin, Neji. Hinata accepted his promise with a nod and a small smile on her face.

There was a slightly peaceful silence between the two of them, both thinking about something that involved the other. For Hinata it was the fact that she had taken her first step towards telling Naruto about how she felt, and for Naruto it was how he inspired her. Then he looked at her once again, her head still bowed down, before he suddenly had a bright idea. He put his hand on her chin and brought her head up, not realising the intimate nature of this gesture, before he said, "Hey Hinata…you were going to watch the matches at the stadium, right?"

Hinata, whose face was now filled to the brim with blood that rushed to it due to her mortification of being held in such an intimate manner by the blonde boy, could only nod her head in agreement and not construct a single word.

Naruto, Mister-Ever-The-Oblivious, simply said, "Excellent, well you could come with me!"

Hinata had to commend herself for not fainting on the spot. Naruto was practically asking her out on a date, but he just did not realise it. His denseness added the cute element to everything that he said or did, and this time was no exception. Hinata thought that she could not go redder, but she did, with so much blood in her face, one would think that she would faint, and she was close to doing so, but then one train of thought stopped her from doing so.

She was supposed to be turning over a new leaf, working towards being stronger. It would not bode well for her if she just fainted in front of him. Who knew what this moment signified for her, but she did know that she would be going back on her promise of getting stronger if she fainted right here. It would have been a sign of her weakness.

She wanted to change that perception of herself. She wanted to be strong, not only for herself, but also for Naruto. So that was why she answered with a timid, but very promising, "O-Okay."

Naruto beamed at her answer and said, "Yatta! C'mon, let's go."

Before Hinata could change her mind, Naruto grabbed her shoulders, turned her around and made her face the direction of the stadium, before he began pushing her lightly as if he was commanding a carriage and said, "This way…"

He then laughed at her when she squeaked out an, "Eek!"

"Let's play a game, I'll pretend to be blind while you lead the way, but you can't walk like you normally do…I have to push you all of the way." Naruto said excitedly.

Hinata could not help but feel excited, Naruto's atmosphere was contagious, so she also felt a bit excited and said, "O-Okay."

Naruto pushed her a bit faster and said, "You're my eyes, Hinata."

"H-Hai." She said in her soft spoken way. Hinata began directing Naruto by telling him to turn left or right or proceed straight down the path they were on. Hinata, having been barred from walking, was forced to lean back into him while he pushed her forward like a trolley.

Naruto noticed that a silence had descended upon them so he decided to break it.

"You know, I used to find you weird before. You were always so meek and shy; I never truly understood what type of person you are." Naruto said, still pushing her lightly, "But I've come to realise that you are a great person, meekness and all. I really like you now."

Of course Naruto had meant it in a platonic way, but that was not how Hinata registered it, and as such, she promptly fainted. Naruto did not realise this as he continued to push her. She just leaned back into Naruto's grasp some more, while the soles of her feet left a deep trench in their wake. She woke up about thirty seconds later, still in the clutches of Naruto, who was still oblivious to her fainting episode, and she simply straightened herself, face a little less red than before, and she smiled a small smile as she thought about the conversation she just had.

They got to the stadium twenty minutes before the fights began. Naruto wondered if he had not merged persona's with Asura, if he was going to be on time. Maybe he would have woken up late and then run into Konohamaru, before being chased by bulls around the village as he lost his sense of direction. Naruto quickly shook his head and internally laughed.

'Ha, like something that wild and random could ever happen?' Naruto inwardly thought.

When they reached the entrance to the stadium, Naruto and Hinata separated, but not before Hinata wished Naruto good luck, before she disappeared to the audience. Naruto headed to the competitors that were lined up in front of everyone at the centre of the stadium. Naruto was feeling anxious and excited at the same time at the prospect of competing in the finals of the chunin exam, but he was not just competing, he wanted to win. He wanted to win the right to be a chunin, and with his recent merge with a being that possessed knowledge passed down to him by the Rikudō, Naruto had the tools to win this tournament in his hands.

When Naruto made it to the centre of the exam arena he saw all of the contestants turn and look at him with a quizzical look, well at least most of them had that look, while the others, like Gaara and Neji, simply did not care. Naruto moved and stood next to the other competitors. He noticed that Sasuke was the only person that was not there yet. He chalked it up to Kakashi-sensei's tardiness.

As he patiently waited out the time remaining before the event began, he heard someone call out to him from the side. When he looked he saw that it was Shikamaru and he had a slightly quizzical look on his face as he said, "What's with the new look?"

"A suggestion by Ero-sennin." was Naruto's reply. Shikamaru did not know who Ero-sennin was, but he chose not to ask. He had already wasted his breath asking about Naruto's new look.

The time ticked down but still there was no Uchiha Sasuke. He seemed to be late. Naruto silently swore at his sensei. This exam would not be the same if Sasuke were not here. He did not want Sasuke to get disqualified due to two reasons. Number one was that he wanted to kick the bastard's ass, and number two was that he wanted the remaining members of team seven to duke it out in the finals of the exams.

When the time came for the exam to begin, Naruto heard some people talking about the possibility of Sasuke getting kicked out of the finals for tardiness, but thankfully it was not made official. The Hokage stood up from his seat in the Kage box and addressed the crowd that was made up of men and women from all walks of life. Once the old man was done there was a man that came up to them and said, "My name is Shiranui Genma, I'm the proctor for the finals."

"What happened to the other guy?" Naruto asked the question that was on most of the competitors minds.

"He called in sick." Genma replied, before he took out a piece of paper and said, "Now I want you to look at the way things have been arranged, because this is how the matches will be structured."

They all took a look at the piece of paper even though they knew how everyone lined up today. Once that was all said and done, Genma told everyone except for Naruto and Neji to leave and head to the stands. When they were all gone, Genma turned to the duo and said, "Are you ready."

Both boys nodded their heads.

Taking it as a sign to begin, the man said, "Hajime."

The Chunin Exam Finals were on.

xxXXxx

**Chapter End**

**I could have released this chapter on Sunday, but I chose not to because of my own reasons. **

**Someone said to me that Naruto has 80% Asura and only 20% percent of himself, and they seemed kinda miffed about it. I want to let you all know that while Naruto acts more like an all-knowing man in the beginning, know that as the story winds down, Naruto's original personality will become the dominant one. **

**Just on a side note, this story is going to be a Naru/Hina Story. If you don't like it, then you can stop reading right here. I also don't do character bashes, so if you're hoping for something like that, then you won't find it here. I have nothing against any Naruto characters…okay maybe I do have something against one or two, but that doesn't mean I will bash them. It's just stupid.**

**On another note, this story will follow cannon up until chapter six, so from chapter seven it will deviate into my own unique plot.**

**With that said, Thabane has left the building. **


	3. Chapter 3: Battle

**This chapter's rather short, and there are reasons for that; the main one being because I was too lazy and because I wanted to post one as soon as possible after such a long time out of the game (of writing fan fiction). Oh, and there's also the one that involves my friends and I trying to get our indie comic off the ground over the last few months, but we were unsuccessful because we live in a backwater country that believes that burning fellow Africans is justice. **

**What a bunch of stupid pricks South Africans are…and it isn't even the educated ones. It is the uneducated lot that are making us look bad internationally. How's a guy supposed to work as a comic book writer if these fuckers are busy killing potential clients. Idiots!**

**Sorry about the rant…anyway, here's the third chapter.**

Chapter Three: Battle

The sound inside the stadium resembled that of a lion's roar; wild, untamed and dominant. The people that had come to witness this spectacular event were showing their appreciation in more ways than one. There were chants for the Hyūga prodigy who stood in all of his glory in the blazing sun, looking undeterred as he stared down his opponent for the evening. His long abyss-like locks that were held in a low ponytail fluttered in the wind like a sail on a ship, while his cream white coloured face had a stoic feature to it.

His opponent seemed to mirror some of his qualities right now, keeping his face stoic and letting his soft hair flutter in the small gust that blew over. Nature could sense the tension building up between the two fighters from the most powerful hidden village, and it was responding accordingly. Naruto's facial expression changed into a serious one the moment the fight was given the green light. He seemed focused, dedicated and above all else, he seemed like he believed that he could win.

His opponent seemed to notice Naruto's burning desire to win and called him out on it, "You believe that you can win this fight."

"Yes." Naruto replied in a slightly toneless manner.

"Then you are a fool." His opponent argued softly, yet firmly.

"Says the guy who tried to kill his own family member." Naruto said, and he got an immediate rise out of his normally stoic opponent.

Neji's calm demeanour broke for a second at the mention of what he did to his own cousin, but it was quickly masked with indifference, "What happened to Hinata-sama is what happens to those who are weak. They pick the wrong fights and get put down like the dogs that they are."

Now it was Naruto's turn to have a broken stoicism, with his hands balling into fists and his right fist being raised into the air "How dare you call her a dog?!"

"I said no such thing." Neji replied smoothly, "I simply said that she was put down like a dog."

Faster than anyone had expected out of Naruto, he blasted off from his position and was in front of Neji within two seconds, before swinging his right fist at the Hyūga, but he simply side stepped the punch before he retaliated with a palm thrust to Naruto's stomach, making saliva fly out of the blonde's mouth, before he received a spinning kick that knocked him back a few feet.

"Foolish." was all Neji said as he stood still with his arms at the side and watched as Naruto got up, "I won't even have to use my Byakugan on you."

Naruto silently cursed himself for not having the foresight to remember that Neji was a taijutsu specialist, and as such the two seconds it took to reach him were too slow for a guy that could beat Bushy Brows. Naruto stood onto his feet and dusted himself a little, before his eyes focused on his opponent once more.

"You won't have to use the Byakugan, you say?" Naruto asked rhetorically.

Neji simply looked at the blonde boy, not the least bit intimidated by him.

"Big Mistake." Naruto declared as he drew on all of his previous life's experience and shifted his foot slightly inward. The ground Neji stood on shook for a second, before he was suddenly shot into the air by a rising piece of earth that he stood on top of. Neji felt the wind kiss his face as he flew higher and higher while his hair got ruffled by the pressure, but just as he reached his apex, the rock he stood on flipped him over so that he was now falling to the ground at a very high speed, face first.

Quickly thinking on his feet, or lack off, he turned on his Byakugan and saw the rock he was on before was following the same flight plan as him. Neji felt like cursing. He had underestimated his opponent and now he was about to get a lesson in the literal understanding of between a rock and a hard place.

Neji cursed again because now he was going to be forced to use one of the techniques he had saved for later on in the tournament. Spinning like a top as he approached his demise, Neji spread his chakra throughout his body until he was surrounded by a large, blue coloured sphere.

"Kaiten!"

The sphere crashed into the ground and dug a hole in it, but while that was happening, the rock came down on the sphere, smashing itself against it, before it got launched off into a random direction. As soon as the rock was out of the way, Neji stopped spinning, and when the dome disappeared, he used his hands to balance while spinning, before he jumped out of the crater he just made and righted himself onto his own feet.

The audience, who had been stunned into silence by the display they just saw, quickly got over their stupor and roared to life. The noise they emitted drowned out any of the previous chanting that was made before. Somewhere in the stands, one Hyūga kunoichi looked on with astonishment and hope for the person she secretly supported. Hinata could not believe what she had just bared witness to, as the skill levels Naruto and Neji had just displayed were simply astounding.

Hinata was not the only one that was shocked. Those that knew Naruto, like Sakura and the rest of her graduating class, had their eyebrows raised; some had hanging jaws and others simply looked apathetic. Sakura turned in her seat and looked at the blonde haired girl next to her with shock evident on her face. Looking at her friend she was able to see a slightly gaping mouth and she realised that she was not the only one who was shocked.

"What the heck was that?!" Sakura shouted in incredulity. She had never seen Naruto display skill of that nature before.

"I don't know, Forehead…" Ino replied, turning to look at her astonished friend, "I was hoping you could tell me since he's your teammate."

Ino had graduated with Naruto, and he was the dead last of the class. She came here today expecting him to put up a brave effort, but ultimately get creamed by the Hyūga prodigy, but it seemed like Naruto did not get the memo because he was taking the fight to Neji.

"I've never seen anything like that." Sakura admitted. Was this a result of the one month training period? Sakura actually considered it, but quickly shot it down because she knew that no one was so skilled that they could harness the power of an element within a month, let alone bend it to their will like Naruto had just done. She kept playing the image of Naruto flailing his arms about, and the rock following his command.

"Well it seems as if there are some secrets in your team." Ino rationally deduced.

Sakura looked away from her friend and focused on the arena floor where Neji and Naruto were about to resume their fight.

"I think you're right." Sakura said in a whispered tone that Ino did not pick up, "It seems as if there are secrets among my teammates."

xxXXxx

The fight between the two boys remained stagnant for a few moments, neither boy refusing to give the other an advantage by acting too hastily. They each had things they deduced from their first round about each other. For Naruto, it was mainly focused on Neji's quick agility. It seemed as if Neji's title of genius was not something that was just picked out of a lottery hat. He was _that_ good.

For Neji, It was Naruto's unexpected mastery over Doton.

Naruto felt Neji's chakra spike slightly before the dust around the Hyūga genius' feet kicked off the ground and Neji made a dash right at him. Naruto knew the dangers of close quarters combat with the Hyūga clan; after all he saw how Neji nearly killed Hinata with pure taijutsu. Now he was forced to defend against said deadly art. He could use some of Asura's more powerful techniques and end the fight right now, but that would raise a lot more eyebrows than necessary.

It was Ero-Sennin's plan…he was just supposed to use the basics, and just the basics of what he had gained from Asura; but the way he had just used the earth against Neji earlier put a serious dent to Ero-Sennin's plan. Oh well, if the cat's already out of the bag, then there's no need to keep holding it back.

Neji was close to Naruto when the blonde boy shifted his right foot to the left and watched as a piece of earth acted like a whip and tried to trip Neji's feet. The operative word being _tried_. Neji saw the chakra laced into the ground thanks to his Byakugan and was able to act accordingly when an earth-like whip tried to trip him. He jumped over the earth construct and was able to keep in direct course for Naruto. He drew his hand back and sent it forward, looking to palm strike the blonde boy in the chest.

Neji's palm did strike something, although that something wasn't his original target. Neji had struck a stone wall that sprung up wordlessly in front of both boys. The wall buckled under Neji's palm thrust but remained sturdy.

The sudden stop caused for Neji to momentarily lose concentration, a lapse which Naruto wanted to catapult at and use to his advantage. Naruto pushed the wall towards Neji with a lot of power behind it. Neji, despite having momentarily lost concentration, was able to ingeniously run up the wall while it moved back, before jumping over it and throwing three kunai at its creator.

Naruto saw the knives headed at him and systemically dodged them by side stepping out of their range. He looked up just in time to see two finger tips hit his shoulder, before they were joined by another two hits to his other shoulder and his right thigh. Naruto managed to jump out of Neji's range just as the Hyūga was about to hit him again. He landed on the ground and looked back up at the sky and saw the Neji that had run up the wall and had thrown the diversionary kunai at him blur out of sight, signalling that he was just a clone that Neji had used as a distraction.

'_Darn it…this guy is fast._' Naruto thought to himself while also trying to get a feel from the parts Neji hit, but found them to be immobile.

Neji wordlessly continued his assault on Naruto, trying to get within the blonde's range, but Naruto had forced himself to increase his own speed so as to be able to keep up with Neji. Neji would attack, while Naruto would dodge the attacks of the Hyūga boy. A palm thrust to the face was evaded by a simple tilting of the head, a two finger jab at Naruto's chest was evaded by simply sidestepping left or right, and the occasional kick thrown in by Neji was either jumped over or ducked low.

The duo continued this game of cat and mouse for a few minutes. Those watching could only keep their attention on the battle as it heated up. They watched in rapt attention as Naruto dodged Neji's deadly strikes.

"Who knew Naruto-kun could actually have such great reaction timing?" said a voice behind Sakura and Ino, one they recognised instantly.

"Lee!" they both shouted at the same time upon seeing the bowl headed boy in crutches and green spandex standing next to his sensei.

"How are you, Sakura-san, Ino-san?" Lee asked the duo calmly, which was a far cry to how he usually acted. His fight against Gaara had left him nearly completely broken physically, but it also seemed to have done a number on him mentally as well.

"We're okay Lee…what about you?" Sakura answered for both Ino and her.

"I am alright, Sakura-san…Gai-sensei picked me up from the hospital so that I could watch the tournament." Lee continued in his unusually calm manner.

"O-okay." was all Sakura could say to the boy. She couldn't say much else to the obviously downtrodden boy.

There was a loud boom that drew everyone's attention back to the fight at hand.

xxXXxx

While some of the audience had been conversing amongst themselves, Naruto and Neji had continued their fierce fight. Neji's attacks had been getting dodged continuously by the blonde Uzumaki, and it was getting on his nerves.

"Hold still!" Neji shouted, thrusting his palm out, before he suddenly tripped over an uneven piece of earth, a piece which Naruto had dislodged on purpose as he continuously moved backwards. Neji lost his balance for the first time in a while and he could only watch as he fell face-first into a chakra laced kick to the face. Luckily for him though, Neji was able to produce a thin veil of chakra around his face thanks to his mastery of the Kaiten.

The second the kick made contact with his face, Neji felt like he had been the luckiest guy in the world for thinking up of placing a veil of chakra around his face because the kick Naruto had just dished out to him was so powerful that there was a loud boom and he was flung backwards. Neji flew through the air at a fast rate before he came into contact with the ground and suddenly found himself in rolling on the dirt a few times before coming to a complete stop.

Naruto meanwhile, was busy shaking the effects of Neji's three quick strikes off of himself. It took him longer than expected to do so since he was holding back greatly. The kick that he delivered should be enough to force the Hyūga to stay down Naruto wagered. Too bad Neji didn't get that memo.

Naruto watched as the Hyūga boy slowly picked himself up off the ground and stagger to his feet. There was blood dripping down Neji's face thanks to a busted nose and a slightly cracked skull.

"W-why?" Neji asked in a tired and blocked nose-like manner, "Why can't I beat you?"

"Huh?" was Naruto's intelligent reply with a slight tilting of his head to the side.

"Why is it that a talentless loser like you can defy fate?" Neji asked.

Naruto had no idea what Neji was trying to get out of him, so he simply said what he felt was the right answer, "Fate isn't something that I believe in. If it was, then I wouldn't be kicking your ass, now would I?"

Neji looked angered by Naruto's words and he voiced his anger, "Don't you dare! Don't you dare say that fate isn't set in stone because if that's true then I wouldn't be cursed to be a branch member of the Hyūga clan!"

Naruto could feel the emotion coming from the Hyūga boy, but chose to ignore it because he just couldn't understand half the things Neji said, "Whatever dude. I have no idea what this whole branch member bullshit is, but I will tell you this…if I were you, I would stop believing in things like fate because that won't get you anywhere in life. Every time you fail, you will blame something that's inexistent, and when you do succeed you'll just chalk it up to fate. I believe that a person makes the path they lead in life…they don't follow some preordained manuscript. I'm living proof of that."

Neji looked at Naruto for a few seconds, not sure about how he ought to process everything he just heard, before he finally succumbed to his injuries and blacked out. His body fell face first onto the ground.

Naruto watched Neji fall unceremoniously and decided to rush towards him, to try and help him, but he had barely taken ten steps before he felt a hand rest on his shoulder.

"Relax kid," the person, whose voice Naruto immediately recognised as Shiranui Genma's, said, "the medic's will take care of him."

Naruto looked up at the proctor and smiled gratefully. Neji may have been a bastard, but it seemed as if he had a few skeletons in his closet that he tried to repress but he couldn't. It was these skeletons that made Neji who he was today, and if there was anyone who ought to know anything about skeletons, then it was him (Naruto). He hoped that talking with him helped Neji clear the air.

While Naruto's attention was on the Hyūga clan member being whisked away by a gurney, Genma's was on Naruto.

'_The kid is an excellent fighter. Those moves he pulled should have made any genin tired and out of breath, but he's standing tall without even a bead of sweat on him. Kid's scary that's for sure._' Genma thought, '_His skill level with Doton is something I've never seen before, not even with Iwagakure shinobi. He wasn't just casting techniques that involved the earth, but he was actually bending the earth to his will. I wonder who taught him that in the space of a month._'

"The winner of this match, Uzumaki Naruto!" Genma shouted for the audience after he realised he hadn't declared a winner yet.

There was a huge applause among those watching, which caught Naruto off-guard for a few seconds, before he quickly ran around the arena, acting like an idiot in the process, and blowing kisses at the audience.

Up in the stands his friends cheered for him while those that were going to possibly be competing against him watched him with careful looks on their eyes. The blonde Uzumaki had just knocked himself up a notch or two in their dangerous opponent rankings.

Anyone who had seen that fight and not be a bit wearier of Naruto would have been the biggest idiot ever. Too bad there was one contestant who didn't get the memo, as he looked at Naruto with a blood lusted look in his eyes instead of weariness.

"Uzumaki…Naruto…"

**Chapter End**

**Once again, sorry for the relatively short chapter, but I wanted to post something as soon as I could. I won't make any promises, but I do want to try and post 10k+ chapters as much as possible. **

**Anyway, I hope the fight wasn't a disappointment. I didn't want Naruto to overpower Neji in one move. It needed to seem like more of a fight because this was a turning point for Neji in canon, and I couldn't take that away from him. **

**Anyway I've recently come to a perplexing point in my life. I have 7 women, that's right, 7 women, that want me and I want them too…but it's getting in the way of my comic book aspirations. While I want to be involved with at least one of them, I realise that they'll shift my focus away from the comic book. Can you guys help me out? What do I do? Do I chase after the women, or do I chase the dream? **

**Alright, A/N over…Thabane has left the building. **


	4. Chapter 4: Continued Surprises

**A/N: Before we begin, I just wanted to say that I am so, so sorry for the late update. I don't want to bore you with a long A/N, but so I saved that for the end of the chapter along with some other things. **

**For now though, let's read on people … **

**DISCLAIMER: **I SUCK AT ENGLISH! No, really. I'm just trying my luck out here man. I mean, I need all the practice I can get because it is not my home language.

**(Ha! You thought I was gonna do a "I don't own Naruto" disclaimer)**

**SUCKER!**

* * *

CHAPTER FOUR: Continued Surprises

When Naruto returned to the competitors booth, the first thing he found was every bodies eyes on him. Why were they all looking at him? This question reverberated throughout his head as he looked at all the competitors that looked at him with varying looks.

'Crap, did I overdo it? I promised myself not to overdo it!' Naruto silently panicked, but his outer appearance was that of a calm individual.

"Uh … sup guys." he said anxiously, waving his hand at them all.

Shikamaru looked at him like he normally did, with boredom. Anyone that gazed into his eyes could tell you that much. Only a select few, however, could go beyond that, and they could read his mind. Unfortunately none of those were around, so he seemed like a bored individual to everyone around him that actually bothered to give two shits in his general direction, which was only Naruto.

'When did Naruto become so strong? from his posture alone, it would seem as if he barely expended any energy in his last fight.' the Nara heir quietly contemplated.

While Shikamaru quietly assessed Naruto, the only other blonde in this exam looked at the blonde boy with a bit of curiosity in her eyes. She was wondering something along the lines of Shikamaru as well, as she had seen his fight in the chūnin preliminary exams, and he did seem the tiniest bit impressive. Now though, now it was a totally different ball game.

Naruto looked around and saw that while most looked impressed with him, they also looked weary. Like that Temari girl from Suna and her brother Kankuro. Shino... well he was Shino, which meant a total unreadability to him. He may have become a conjoined human, on a spiritual level, but he was still trying to come to terms with that properly. So whatever body-language reading abilities his past self contained, it was all stored within his subconscious. He could not really draw on it … yet.

One look though, stood out to him in particular, and it came from the boy that pretty much crushed Rock Lee's career in one move. The red haired demon in kid-flesh known as Gaara. Looking at the boy would have sent a chill down his spine before, just like when they met at the hospital, but now he was different. Seeing the blood lust that practically rolled of the boy in droves made Naruto look at him a bit closer than he normally would have.

"You … you want to kill me, don't ya?" Naruto asked out of nowhere, eliciting a gasp out of Kankuro and a mere body twitch from Temari.

Gaara simply looked more crazed than before, before he answered the blonde chillingly, "Kill is such an understatement."

Naruto's passive-aggressive nature with his past self was on full display for him to see. He could get a reading on blood lust before the merger, anyone called a ninja could, really. Now though, he could tell the differences in blood lust with ease as he looked at Gaara. While the boy was indeed frightening, there was another, more underlying blood lust that Naruto sensed. One that reminded him of the Kyūbi- Kurama.

"I guess you're right if Shukaku is involved." Naruto said offhandedly, and for the first time since he had ever spoken to Gaara, he made the red head uneasy. This was evidenced by the slip of the maniacal grin Gaara had.

Naruto's past self had dealt with Shukaku before. The tanuki may not have been evil back then, but he was a bit of a nut. Naruto was able to discern Gaara as a jinchuriki of Shukaku because of the simple fact that he had blood lust rolling off of him that was similar to that of Kurama. Bijū may be different in personality, elemental affinities and whatever the heck else it was that made them different, but their core chakra was still the same whenever it came to blood lust. After all, they ere all derived from the same thing.

Before Gaara could even ask Naruto how he knew of Shukaku, the blonde had already gone off to stand next the lazy Nara. Temari, who had been oddly impressed by the shinobi-that-wins-bouts-with-a-fart, was now completely scared of him. Why? He somehow knew about Gaara being a Jinchuriki and casually dismissed him like he was nothing to worry about. No one, not even their own father had ever done that. Looking over at Kankuro, she could tell he felt the same fear that she felt for the blonde kid.

This also, inadvertently raised another question for them … did Konoha know?

"So, who's next?" Naruto asked Shikamaru as soon as he reached him.

As if the question was heard by more than just Shikamaru, it was coincidentally answered by Genma, who was at the centre of the arena, "The next match is of Uchiha Sasuke, and Sabaku no Gaara."

Gaara, as if he had been waiting to hear his name, turned his lower body into sand, which drifted towards to the stadium's arena, before the rest of his body followed suit. Before he completely disintegrated, however, he looked in Naruto's general vicinity and said, "First I'll go for Sasuke... then you're next."

As soon as Gaara's sand had left the competitors booth and coalesced back into Gaara in the arena, Shikamaru was the first to speak for everyone that was there, "Wow … you sure know how to pick 'em."

And pick 'em he did, the other competitors silently agreed. First it was Neji, now it's Gaara. What's next, the Kyūbi?

* * *

Kage Booth

Predator. That was a word that was used a lot when it came to describing Orochimaru of the Sannin. A predator was something he took great pleasure in being simply because he believed it allowed him to surpass all adversaries that were put before him. Like any good predator, he knew how to bide his time whenever he wanted something, and he had waited an awfully long time to get to where he was right now. Sitting next to the Sandaime Hokage, getting ready to see what his next prospective prey had for him.

His team mate, someone Orochimaru had admittedly overlooked, had done things that not even he had been able to do with Doton. In fact, he doubted that even the Tsuchikage, the current greatest Doton jutsu user alive, could actually do what Naruto did. The small movements with his feet, allowing him to manipulate the earth on a near telepathic level, surprised Orochimaru greatly. So much so that he had placed the boy high up on his list of possible problems for the future.

Which meant that he had to get rid if him as soon as possible.

"We finally get to see your son in action again, Kazekage-dono." the Sandaime Hokage spoke up from Orochimaru's left, dragging the man back from his thoughts, and making him concentrate on the arena, where his current flesh bag's son was standing impatiently waiting for his opponent.

"Yes … but it would seem as if Gaara's opponent is not here yet." the Kazekage's voice spoke in place of Orochimaru's.

"Yes, that is a problem." the Sandaime said, quickly coming to the realisation that Kakashi had transferred his tardiness to Sasuke, "I'm afraid I might have to-"

Whatever the Sandaime was about to say died in his throat because of what happened next.

* * *

Arena

Genma had been silently looking up at the Hokage, pretty sure about what his leader was going to decide with regards to Uchiha Sasuke's fate because the boy was running late. By his estimations, the boy was nearly three minutes late for his match, and he had turned to his fearless leader to confirm what he thought was going to happen. Sasuke was going to get disqualified. Those were the rules after all. If you're late, fuck off!

Then everything changed after that thought. It started out with a simple electrifying of the air, something only shinobi of a particular calibre could catch on to. He was one of those shinobi. It was just a small zap of power in the air. What followed this zap was a pillar of light that blinded everyone that was in the stadium. Genma was pretty sure that all of Konoha had seen this light as well.

Then there was a streak of lightning that fell into the arena. The lightning was so bright that no one could see anything after it hit the arena. They could, however, make out the thunderous boom that usually accompanied lightning a few seconds later.

"What the-" Genma began, as he shielded his eyes and tried to make out what was happening. When the lightning's bright light finally died out, the entire shinobi world bore witness to history in the making.

Uchiha Sasuke stood smack-dab at the centre of the arena, wearing a pair of high-collared, light-coloured kimono top held closed by a dark sash. The collar of the kimono was adorned with the tomoe of the Sharingan. He wore a black full-bodied suit underneath. The thing that truly stood out with Sasuke was the sword he sported on his back, which had the shape of a ninjatō, but was actually bigger in terms of width. All in all, Sasuke looked extremely … different.

And in a tournament such as this, where the stakes are always high, different can sometimes be the deciding factor in whether you excel or fail.

Standing next to Sasuke was Hatake Kakashi in his usual attire. The people of the stadium did not really care about him though, all of them had their eyes glued on Sasuke. Kakashi might as well have been invisible to the people that were present. He could have snuck up on each and every single one of them and snatched all of their valuables and they would have been none the wiser about it. All they cared about currently was his student.

* * *

With Sakura

Sakura had stars in her eyes the moment she saw that Sasuke had appeared in the arena. To her, he looked beyond perfect. He looked like he came here to crush everything and everyone. He was strength personified. Ino had similar thoughts as well, as she joined Sakura in her star struck, and slightly drooling, state.

The two girls were not the only ones that had those thoughts as well, most of the stadium did, minus the drool. They seemed to be in awe over the power and confidence that Sasuke was exuding as he stood in the arena, next to his sensei.

With the Jonin

"Whoa, is that Sasuke?" Kurenai asked rhetorically, looking at the boy in awe. She, along with her fellow jonin, were impressed by the Sasuke that they saw before them.

"I think it is …" another Jonin, who wore the usual shinobi attire of a Konoha shinobi, with the addition of a pair of red trimmed sunglasses, answered her slightly rhetorical question.

Kurenai almost felt the need to make Aoba notice that he answered a rhetorical question. _Almost_ being the operative term. She chose not to do it because she, just like he and every other Jonin, was just transfixed on Sasuke.

* * *

Kage Booth

With the two present Kage, they too were impressed with the power that Sasuke exuded, the Kazekage more than the Hokage. Orochimaru was looking at Sasuke with a look that mirrored almost everybody's. He was in awe, and internally he might as well have done the chicken dance or something else that was equally ridiculous, because he knew at that moment that he had found it.

He had found the perfect vessel.

* * *

In the Contestants Booth

"What?" Naruto said, stupefied by what he was looking at. While everyone was looking at Sasuke in awe, he looked at Sasuke with something akin to fear.

Why fear?

Because he had seen this before. He had seen the look that Sasuke sported. He had felt the power that he exuded before, and it wasn't a happy memory for him.

'Please don't let this be what I think it is.' Naruto silently prayed as he looked at Sasuke's back, which sported the Uchiha clan's crest on it along with the magatama.

As if by some trick that fate conjured up just to fuck with Naruto after so much good fortune for the past month, Sasuke turned around and stared directly at him. He stared at him with a pair of fully matured Sharingan. Sharingan that held zero empathy in them. Sharingan he had seen before. And they had belonged on the face of the same person that could charm people with nothing but his mere presence.

'Oh my …' those thoughts rang out in Naruto's head.

Sasuke silently looked up at him for the longest of moments, making the tension between them more palpable than an active volcano that's waiting to burst. It was as if the sun and the moon were having a stare down, and the moon was winning.

After these long and very tense moments, Sasuke finally spoke to Naruto, but it was in such a low voice that a lot of people, the Kage included, could not hear, but they could read the boy's lips, so they saw what he was saying. To Naruto, he might as well have screamed those words to him because they rung throughout his body, confirming his greatest fear right now.

"Hello, Otouto."

* * *

To be continued

* * *

**Holy shit! What the fuck do we have here, huh? Sasuke just goes all Storm-like and drops out of the sky in a lightning bolt. A lightning bolt. Since when has he been able to do that, huh? **

**Also, what the fuck is going on? Why did Naruto fear him all of a sudden? And what's up with the whole "nii-san" thing? So many questions … we're gonna have to wait until the next chapter for the answer to them, and hopefully not have a few more raised along the way, huh. **

**I just wanted to once again apologise for the shortness of this chapter as well as the lateness of it all. A combination of lethargy and more lethargy just kept it from being posted. Also, I finally have a solid plot for this story now. It isn't some blind run story now, which is cool. **

**Anyway, depending on the reviews and likes for the story, I might post a 10K chapter next week … remember, that's all dependant on your responses people. So get the word out about this story.(Is a hundred reviews wishful thinking?)  
**

**Oh, on a side note, I wanted to know who reads comic books over here, specifically the current Thor comic book, The Mighty Thor? PM if you do because I'm dying to talk to someone about it and a whole lot more when it comes to comic books. **

**Finally, in the words of … whoever came up with this: **

**I'm out!**


	5. Chapter 5: Naruto v Sasuke

A/N: **Before we can begin with this chapter, I just wanted to let you guys know how much I appreciate your responses to this story, despite a few of them being of the unsavoury kind. There are people that think that what I did in the last chapter with introducing Sasuke, in the way that I did, took away the story's uniqueness. **

**I say that it actually added to it, but that's my belief. **

**How unique is an OP Naruto that has no one to challenge him? Huh? **

**For those of you who agree with those that say that my story is no longer unique, I say to you, "Wait 'til they get a load of me." or in other words, sit down, shut the fuck up and enjoy the ride.**

**Oh, I almost forgot to mention. This version of Indra and Ashura are not based on the anime fillers. I will borrow a few things here and there, but just a few. The fillers made Indra out to be this awesome and extremely powerful guy while Ashura just barely beat him with the power gifted to him by his old man. I won't tell you how my version differs from the show, you'll just have to see for yourself. **

**Anyway, here's you next chapter …**

CHAPTER FIVE: Naruto v Sasuke

* * *

Outskirts of Konoha – One month Ago

Hatake Kakashi had seen a lot of things over his tenure as a shinobi. He'd seen great monsters that came in the form of normal everyday animals, he had seen a man wipe out a thousand-strong army by himself, that man being his sensei, and heck, he himself had cut fucking lighting with his hand. Even with him experiencing all of those things, nothing could have prepared him for the sudden burst of power he felt from his prized student.

That's right, prized student.

Every sensei had a prized student. The Sandaime Hokage had Orochimaru, the Yondaime Hokage had him, Hatake Kakashi, as his prized student, and if he were to be honest with himself, then Sasuke was his prized student.

The boy was a natural to the shinobi arts, just like he was from a young age. He took in everything that he was taught like a sponge. Nothing was truly out of his grasp when it came to what he could and could not be taught.

Still though, even with all of those things going for him, there was no way in hell he should be able to do the things that he was doing right now.

As Kakashi stood on top of a boulder, Sasuke was currently supercharging both of his hands in electrical energy. Sparks could be seen dancing all over Sasuke's arms from his shoulder's, down to his finger tips. He was in a meditative stance while he did this, with his sandals having been forsaken to the side.

"What's wrong, Kakashi?" Sasuke asked with his eyes closed.

"Nothing, Sasuke." Kakashi lied. Everything about the scene before him was wrong. A few days ago, Sasuke could barely get a burst of electricity to flow into his hand in order to perform the jutsu he had been trying to teach him, and now the boy was performing nature manipulation that was of a scale similar to the Sandaime and Yondaime Raikage. This should not be happening.

"For such a well respected shinobi, you can be a pathetic liar at times." Sasuke spoke, catching onto Kakashi's lie with ease.

"Oh, when exactly have I lied?" Kakashi feigned ignorance in order to gauge Sasuke's complete 180 degree change in attitude. The boy had been a bit more sociable ever since they came back from the land of waves. Everyday, the armour he had built around himself had slowly been chipped away, by Naruto and Sakura, but more especially Naruto.

Now though, it seemed as if that was just a reconstruction job. The armour was being chipped away in order to reinforce it. Sasuke had gone back to being a cold person.

Kakashi saw that his response got Sasuke riled up for a split second, with the boy's lips twitching slightly in annoyance, before they were schooled back into their usual impassive stance.

The dance of lighting that was taking place on Sasuke's forearms continued for another minute, with the air becoming hotter the longer the boy held the technique. Eventually though, he cut the technique off completely, his arms returning to normal, but the same could not be said for his clothes.

Sasuke's now sleeveless shirt and roughly burned shorts were on full display for Kakashi to see, and it was seeing this that worried him greatly.

"Those clothes of yours, Sasuke …" Kakashi began, "they were made by the Uchiha correct?"

"What of it?" the boy answered with his own question, his obsidian eyes looking directly at Kakashi for the first time today.

"Nothing of it." Kakashi lied again as he descended from his position on top of the boulder and landed on the ground with one foot, with both of his hands stuffed into his pockets, "We just need to get you new ones before the tournament begins."

'To be able to burn near-fireproof clothes with nothing but pure electrical energy is something that only a Jonin should be able to do.' Kakashi thought to himself as he walked past Sasuke, heading back to their tents that were a few hundred metres away, 'Sasuke just did it without breaking much of a sweat.

'This... this is not Sasuke.' the seasoned veteran concluded in his head as he pretended to have his guard lowered while he walked with his back facing Sasuke.

Sasuke watched Kakashi leave their designated training field with cold, uncaring eyes. He could tell that the man was thinking up a storm in his head, but he honestly did not care.

There wasn't a lot that he cared about right now. He did not care about Kakashi, Konoha or even his life's supposed mission. No, he did not care about any of those things. Right now, all he cared about was one thing and one thing only.

"I'm coming for you... Ashura."

* * *

Konoha – Now

They say that there are some things in life that are forever bound together, where one cannot exist without the other. Cases that are used to back up this claim are things such as light and darkness, where you need the other one in order for the other to exist. How are you going to appreciate light if it is all you know? How do you appreciate darkness if it's all you know? Other things that are used to further this claim are things such as yin and yang, love and hatred and beauty and ugliness.

If anyone had told this to Uzumaki Naruto before, he would have said that they were right. He believed that some things needed to happen in order for other things to exist. What he simply forgot was that if he, or rather his past self, could transmigrate all the way into his current body, then that meant that his opposite should be able to do the same.

That was a huge mistake on his part. A _very_ huge mistake. Now he was about to regret it.

Naruto's eyes trained on the form of Sasuke, looking at him with a coldness that would freeze lesser beings. Fortunately for him, Naruto was not a lesser being, and as such he was not frozen. Looking at Sasuke, and then hearing the words he had spoken to him had pretty much confirmed a fear he never even knew he had in him.

Sasuke was gone, and in his place was Indra.

Naruto could feel the intensity between him and Sasuke. If it could have been measured in actual size, then one would classify it as a mountain. Unfortunately for him, such a large amount of animosity in the air also resulted in everyone being able to feel it. Everyone from a civilian all the way up to the Kage. _Everyone_ could feel it.

"Sas-" Naruto began, but he was immediately cut off by a dash that was so quick, he barely had time to dodge it. What saved him was a slight tilt of the head, causing the blur to pass him, but not harmlessly, as indicated by the small red line on his cheek.

Looking back to where his team mate should have been, Naruto found the spot to be bare.

"I'm not Sasuke." Naruto heard behind him while also feeling Sasuke's sword being rested on his shoulder.

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked without turning around. Shikamaru, who was next to Naruto reeled in from the shocking display of speed that Sasuke had just unleashed.

'What the heck?!' the young Nara thought as he gazed at Sasuke in shock. Looking around the competitors booth, he was not the only one feeling this shock. Everybody, even that annoying Suna girl, were experiencing it.

Well, almost everyone. One look at Naruto and Shikamaru could tell that he was calm as fuck.

'What the fuck are they feeding team seven? I can tell that Naruto is already at Gaara's level. How did he and Sasuke improve so much in just one month?'

"I thought you had figured it out already, Ashura." Sasuke said without skipping a beat.

"Elaborate for me, nii-san." Naruto said, his face impassive, still not turning around.

"You see, that's it right there." Sasuke said, with the smugness dripping from his voice, "You called me nii-san."

" … So you're Indra." Naruto confirmed.

"Bingo … and they say you're stupid? They clearly don't know you, otouto. But don't worry, you can continue to call me Sasuke." Sasuke said.

He had been right, without a shadow of a doubt. Unlike what had happened between him and Ashura, where they bonded to become one being with shared experiences, Indra did not offer the same deal to Sasuke. Instead, it was more of a case of complete subjugation of the last scion of the once proud Uchiha clan.

"Shikamaru." Naruto said calmly, still refusing to look anywhere but the arena where Gaara was located. Said boy, like everyone else across the stadium, had a look of pure shock on their faces. I mean, since when did Sasuke become so fast?

"Yeah." the Nara answered a bit too unevenly for his own liking. Then again, who could blame him, with the temperature suddenly dropping so much around the stadium on such a sunny day.

"Leave." Naruto spoke, his chakra slowly getting released from his body. If one were to look at it, r at least imagine it, it would had the motions of a slow belly dancer.

Honestly, the Nara did not need to be told twice, and judging by the others that were in the contestants booth, they did not even need to be told once. They quickly evacuated the booth, leaving only the reincarnated siblings there to square of.

As soon as the others had exited the booth, shit hit the ceiling. Or rather, Sasuke's head did because Naruto used his advanced nature manipulation to shoot the piece of earth Sasuke- or rather Indra- stood on straight to the ceiling, and through it.

The Uchiha born body of Sasuke shot out through the underside of the tiled roof and shot straight into the air. Naruto was not far behind with a spear he had created in an instant made from pure wind manipulation, his natural affinity. He threw the spear with such speed that it pierced the rock Sasuke was on and cut him in half without even trying.

At least, that's what seemingly happened. The Sasuke that had been split into two simply exploded into a cloud of smoke, revealing that he had been a Kage Bunshin.

"That's a good technique." Sasuke said as he watched Naruto land on the roof. He stood above his blonde team mate, "I see why it's you're favourite."

Naruto calmly spoke to the black haired boy, "I didn't know that you could perform it."

"Hello," Sasuke said with a cocky smirk, while pointing to his eyes "Sharingan dumb-ass. Plus, it also helps that this body has so much chakra."

Naruto said nothing at first, simply letting his hair cascade over his eyes, thus creating a shadow over them. When he spoke to his team mate, it was with barely restrained anger, "Why?"

"Why what?" Sasuke said while he laid his sword on his left shoulder.

Naruto could feel the scream he was about to unleash and he could barely stop himself, "Why did you murder Sas-"

His scream was impeded by the arrival of multiple ANBU onto the roof top. Each one was dressed in either a yellow hooded cloak or a black variant.

"Uzumaki Naruto. Uchiha Sasuke." an ANBU operative with a baritone said, "By order of the Sandaime Hokage, you are to stand down now. No contestants are allowed to fight outside the arena. Such actions are grounds for immediate exclusion from the tournament."

Naruto and Sasuke looked at all of the ANBU around them and said nothing. Naruto could count twenty in total. Judging by their stances, they were ready to pounce on either of them in a split second should they try anything … unsavoury.

Sasuke looked at the odds against him and smiled a little.

"Really?" he said with a cocky smirk.

"Are you challenging our authority, boy." the same ANBU that had spoken before in a deep voice spoke once again.

"Be wise to know that challenging our authority is actually challenging your Hokage's authority." a female operative said. The one that had spoken first was clad in a bear mask, while this one was clad in a cat mask.

Sasuke's smile dropped from his face as he spoke again, "I have no Hokage … or any other Kage for that matter."

"Why you insolent little-" the bear masked ANBU began, but was cut off by a mad dash Sasuke made toward him, sword poised to strike. The surprise movement shutting him up.

The sword slashed well and truly where the ANBU was, but instead of catching the ANBU himself, Sasuke cut a pillar that had risen underneath the man in order to move him out of the way. The pillar had come courtesy of Naruto.

Before he even had time to register that he had cut solid rock, the sole of a sandal met the Uchiha on his cheek and temple, sending him flying off the roof with such ferocity that he actually flew outside the stadium. Just like with the pillar before, the kick that launched Sasuke away also came courtesy of Naruto, who landed on the roof with a crouch. Now all he had to do was jump after his rival, who also happened to be his brother once upon a time, and try to stop him from going on a murder spree, like he had done once upon a time.

As soon as he landed, however, he was met by intersecting blades that criss-crossed around his neck.

"What the-" Naruto let slip in shock over the action.

"Uzumaki Naruto. Stand down, now." the cat masked ANBU, who was one of the people holding a ninjatō to his neck, said, "Your actions have led to your immediate disqualification from this tournament."

Naruto couldn't stop himself from admonishing them for the fuck up that they just made, "What?! You fucking idiots! Do you realise that you-"

For the umpteenth time in the last few minutes, Naruto was cut-off from completing his sentence. This time however, it was the sight of a purple haired head jumping off the neck it rested on and flying into the air, along with the other three ANBU that were holding their swords at Naruto's neck.

Their heads floating in the air seemed to be something that happened in slow motion, with blood washing all over the shocked Uzumaki that had been kneeling on the ground. His eyes travelled to the wickedly smiling form of his airborne brother, whose left hand held the sword responsible for killing four fellow Konoha shinobi.

Naruto could slowly hear his once calm heart slowly starting to beat erratically in his ears. He could feel the rush of blood that came with being in an angered state. Unlike before, where he would have simply chosen to beat his once-brother up, before talking to him in order to try and bring him back to his senses, his senses being the old Uchiha Sasuke, Naruto quickly realised that that was out of the question.

His anger over the fact that Indra had practically murdered Sasuke's soul by taking over his body entirely, and now the fact that he killed fellow Konoha shinobi caused something to snap within Naruto.

Before the blonde even knew what he was doing, he had tackled Indra and they were flying through the air, sword having slipped out of the black haired boy's hand, with him holding a shocked and out of breath former-Sasuke-now-Indra by his stomach. They broke the sound barrier with ease as they took to the skies. He held on tightly to the Uchiha's body, too tightly. He wanted to crush the boy he currently held with everything he had in him. He wanted to break his bones, feel them crumbling away in his hands like they were nothing more than paper. He wanted to make him pay, and make him pay he was.

Unfortunately, not all plans go according to plan, as Naruto experienced a second later when Sasuke's hard knee was felt on his chest. The blow was so powerful that Naruto felt blood dribbling out of his mouth and his grip on his team mate's body slipped as well. Sasuke used this to his advantage to try and worm his way out of Naruto's grip. The operative word here? _Tried_.

Naruto suddenly pulled a 180 degree turn and used all of the raw strength he had in him to fling Indra away like a missile. Sasuke's body broke the sound barrier with ease from Naruto's throw. Naruto, using skill he had picked up when he merged with Ashura, manipulated a vacuum of pure wind chakra into his hands and used that as a means of stabilising himself and righting the flight pattern he was on, which would have seen him make love to a tall building that looked like church.

All he could do with the wind in his hands was change whatever direction he was headed in by using short bursts of it. He couldn't use it like Ashura could, who could actually fly with this technique, but this was the next best thing. Using the short bursts allowed him to, as previously mentioned, right his flight pattern by slowing him down enough so that he can slam his feet onto the church wall without destroying it.

Using the the church's wall as a means of propulsion, Naruto shot back in the direction he had come from, the stadium. He was not headed back to the stadium, however. He was headed straight for Sasuke.

* * *

Meanwhile in the Stadium

Shock, confusion and panic. These were the three words that best summarised the atmosphere of the stadium. As soon as the four ANBU had been beheaded in front of everyone that could see what was happening on the contestants booth, the stadium went into panic mode. Shinobi were on their feet in an instant as they rushed to see exactly what could be done to salvage such a fucked up situation, and to also get a better understanding of whatever was going on.

The ANBU that were on the roof that had been sent to dispel the fight that Naruto and Sasuke had initiated had been too slow and shocked to act quickly, and as such Naruto and Sasuke had left their line of sight in less than two seconds. After that though, they went into overdrive. The sixteen ANBU all scattered to try and search for the boys in order to apprehend them.

Uzumaki Naruto, while innocent of any grievous crimes, was now disqualified from the exams. Uchiha Sasuke... well he was a dead man walking. You do not go around killing Konoha ANBU for whatever reason you had. _Never_.

With the Kage, they, unlike the rest of the stadium, just calmly sat and watched Konoha shinobi blur into and out of existence with practised ease. Their eyes quickly following the motions everyone within the stadium made.

"This … " the Kazekage said quietly, " … is a disaster."

The Sandaime Hokage did not need to be reminded of that fact. He could see everything happening in front of his own very eyes. Four of his ANBU, including a squad captain, were beheaded in one slash by a mere _genin_. Shinobi killing those of their own village was one thing that happened a lot. Kinkaku and Ginkaku did it ages ago. As did an upstart that tried to kill Ryōtenbin no Ōnoki a few years ago.

The fact that it was a Konoha _genin_ that killed four ANBU was an atrocity. This was surely to have ramifications on Konoha's mission requests. ANBU were supposed to be elite. More so than most Jonin. So for four to be cleanly beheaded in front of so many visiting dignitaries was a disaster of epic proportions.

Beyond that, however, there was also the fact that these were people that he had sworn to look after as Hokage. Even though their first duty was to him, everyone within the ranks knew that their Hokage cared for them, even though he never showed it.

Hiruzen slowly stood up, the raging inferno that burned within him from Sasuke's actions led to his next course of action.

"Kazekage-dono." Hiruzen spoke to the disguised Orochimaru without looking at him, "I'm afraid I must leave. I have an ill-disciplined genin I must teach some manners."

"Say no more." was all the Kazekage said. This, in all honesty, was the best opportunity to take out the old Hokage. Unfortunately though, there were too man eyes resting on the Hokage now. Orochimaru did not have to see them to know. Every ANBU within the stadium that was not doing crowd control or looking for Naruto and Sasuke was watching over their leader from the shadows.

Besides, every dark cloud has a silver lining. He just needed to find his.

Just as the old man had taken off his robes and had dispatched his hat, he heard a small booming sound. It came from just behind the contestants booth in the stadium. The boom was soon followed by some rumbling, before something that looked to be blue shot out from the contestants booth and shot straight to the arena floor. The impact caused a huge dust cloud to be kicked up.

The Hokage had to strain his eyes in order to get a look at the object that had crashed into the stadium. When the dust settled down, he was surprised to see Sasuke standing there, his attire slightly torn, with lightning dancing all around his body in minute flashes.

'Naruto must have sent him through the wall, but he limited the damage by cutting through the wall with Raiton. He basically turned himself into his teacher's signature technique.' Hiruzen surmised. T

Hiruzen looked at the boy and saw that the boy he once knew, the boy he had been once tasked with watching over, was no more. He seemed to be gone, lost in a pit of eternal darkness that had no chance of return.

"Mikoto, Fugaku, Itachi... please forgive me for what I am about to do." Hiruzen spoke quietly to himself before he launched himself at the last, once loyal, Uchiha.

* * *

With Naruto

Naruto's feet met the ground as he skidded to a halt just outside the stadium. Looking up, he saw that there was a hole that led into the stadium through the contestants booth.

"Shit. I overthrew that dick wad." Naruto swore, before he added, "I guess I gotta go in there again."

Just as he was about to jump back into the stadium, over a dozen feet clad in sandals landed next to Naruto.

"Oh c'mon!" Naruto exclaimed in irritation at seeing ANBU surround him once again, "Not you guys again."

"Uzumaki Naruto-" one began, before it was interrupted.

"Do you guys have to say my full name name every time?" Naruto said in irritation.

" … regardless, you are to stand down." the very same ANBU said.

"Or what?" Naruto decided to play chicken. Not really the greatest of ideas when ANBU are involved.

The answer to his question was answered by actions, rather than words. Those actions being the simultaneous drawl of a ninjatō from a sheath slapped across the ANBU's backs and a simultaneous dash toward Naruto.

One made a mad dash for his feet, trying to trip him by sliding at his feet, while another tried to intercept him in mid-air if he jumped.

"Fuck!" was all Naruto could say.

* * *

Kage Booth

Orochimaru, in his disguise as the Sandaime Kazekage, stood up from his seat and took finite steps forward, heading toward the exit of the Kage Booth, with the two guards that watched over him following along. One of those guards looked at him from behind, seemingly measuring the man he called Kazekage.

Once Orochimaru and the two guards following him left the Kage section of the stadium and entered a long passageway that barely had any lighting. The trio moved at a relatively slow pace, ignoring the sounds of chaos that were coming from outside. While they were walking, there was a slight shift in the wind, one barely noticeable by those that were not experienced, but anyone worth a grain of salt would have noticed it easily.

"Kabuto…" Orochimaru said when a man decked in ANBU apparel appeared in place of the guard that was measuring him.

"My lord. Why have you not given the signal?" the kneeling ANBU, Kabuto, said.

"There's no need to do so. Plus, I think I have a new way to defeat Konoha, one much more subtle and a whole lot more fitting to our grand ambitions." Orochimaru replied, without missing a beat as he continued to stride forward without looking back.

" … I see." was all Kabuto said. Kabuto knew and understood the risks that his master would be taking by not attacking the leaf at this particular moment. He had promised the Suna council, and its shinobi the blood of Konoha. While many agreed that Konoha's time had finally come, they were hesitant to do what was necessary to eliminate them.

Now his master was going to look like that as well in front of Suna's council. Whether he as wearing a disguise or not does not matter.

"So, I should tell our forces to fall back?" Kabuto asked, following his master.

"Yes … but we'll keep the moles we already have in place hear in Konoha for the time being." the master commanded, before adding, "They'll prove useful at a later date … I hope."

"As you command, Orochimaru-sama." Kabuto said, before he left as silently as he had entered, with the guard being returned to his position as if he had never left in the first place. Good thing too, because they had just come out of the dark-ish passage, and they were met by a platoon of Konoha shinobi.

"Kazekage-sama." a Konoha Jonin said, "We have been dispatched by the Jonin Commander to help keep you safe."

"Is that so … well then, lead the way." the snake hiding in plain sight said.

* * *

With Gaara

Being Sabaku no Gaara was not very easy. You only did a few things, sure, but they were not easy things. Killing random people for no reason beyond being that they annoyed the heck out of you is one thing that comes easy to Sabaku no Gaara. Being the focal point of an attack plan was slightly harder, but not by much. It was like killing random people, except now it had to be within certain confines.

The thing that made being Sabaku no Gaara truly challenging was fighting for control of your body from an evil entity. Evil was a word Gaara associated himself with with relative ease. Everything he did was denounced as evil. What Gaara did, in his own twisted sense of logic, was not evil. It was just being human. To a lot of people, Gaara seemed like a monster because he had no way to curb his killing inhibitions. To Gaara, he was simply being human.

Is survival by any means necessary not a base human instinct? Gaara employed this to its fullest capacity.

To Gaara, any means that ensured his survival, even killing people because of Shukaku's cries for blood, were more than satisfactory. Right now was one such time where Shukaku cried for blood, and that blood was standing right in front of him, with a back that had the Uchiha clan's symbol exposed to him. The blood was currently looking at the Sandaime Hokage, who was in a black battle armour.

Gaara had been quietly waiting for the Uchiha to make his appearance ever since the time delay. He had been quiet, but his mother had been a whole lot more vocal. At first, she wanted the Uchiha to be murdered seven different ways, but after he showed up, it escalated to ten. For some reason she seemed to have a natural repulsion to him. It had been that way since the day he first laid eyes on the Uchiha.

Now, his day of reckoning had arrived. He had to die. Gaara's eyes watched the blood talk to the Sandaime, not really sure, nor did he care, what they were talking about. While talking, Sasuke flexed his arm, as if testing out his strength. His body language was that of a man who knew that he could taken on a Kage. Gaara knew he had the raw power to do so, but not the skill. The gap between father and son did more than enough of that to convince Gaara that he wasn't ready for a Kage.

The same could, or rather should, be said for Sasuke. And yet, here he was challenging the Hokage.

The boy had an air of cockiness to him, cockiness that was there before, since day one, but was now magnified a thousand fold.

Regardless though, mother wanted blood. Uchiha Sasuke was exactly that.

Before Gaara could do anything beyond pour chakra into his sand in order to wake it up, he watched on in shock as Sasuke rushed head-first at Sarutobi Hiruzen.

"Katon …"

* * *

To be Continued

**Like a phoenix I have returned with more clichéd lazy cliff hangers that I deliberately wrote because I am just fucking tired. This chapter is late becaus i had problems with my laptop, which I have now fixed. Albeit temporarily. **

**Anyway, there's a lot of things that occurred in this chapter. One of them being the death of Uzuki Yugao and three other ANBU! I honestly don't get fandom's obsession with her. Yeah, she had cook purple hair. SO?**

**Orochimaru (looking to get away from Yugao fans) chose not to attack Konoha. What does that mean for the future. Is he going to be Kazekage some more? Exactly what are his plans?**

**I'm currently putting on my fire proof suit, getting ready for the flames I'm going to receive for the next chapter, it's going to have the biggest cliffy in all of fanfiction history. Can't wait for it, especially in order to find out what Sasuke and Hiruzen said to each other before they duked it out.**

**'til next time...**

**I'm out!**


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